Illinois State Police Seize and Keep Desirable Cars for Personal Use

Illinois State Police Seize and Keep Desirable Cars for Personal Use

www.thenewspaper.com

Illinois State Police troopers seized a high-performance muscle car and set it aside for the personal use of an influential police official. The Associated Press reported that a suspected drunk driver in a 2006 Dodge Charger was pulled over in January 2007. The troopers used a state seizure law to confiscate the vehicle.

(visit the link for the full news article)

“The mission of the Illinois State Police Merit Board is to remove political influence and provide a fair and equitable merit process for the selection of Illinois State trooper candidates and the promotion and discipline of Illinois State Police officers,” the board website explains.

According to AP, the Charger is just one of two dozen desirable cars — including an Audi and a Cadillac Escalade — grabbed and kept by state troopers. State police officials decline to identify the beneficiaries of the confiscated car policy claiming it could endanger officers if the type of car they drove at taxpayer expense were made public

www.thenewspaper.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by Master_Wii

State police officials decline to identify the beneficiaries of the confiscated car policy claiming it could endanger officers if the type of car they drove at taxpayer expense were made public

**Snipped** right it could endanger officers. I'm not certain I understand how or why police should be able to seize any piece of personal property. I can understand revoking a license... but not seizing personal/private property for ANY reason - let alone personal use and personal gain at tax payers expense.

Honestly, I'm not keen on the laws in this situation - can someone give me one good reason why state officials should ever have the right to claim my personal property?

If I break the law put me in jail or revoke my license and registration - I can understand that; that's fine - but take my stuff? Preposterous...

oh what a shock some police men thought they were gods and missused their power to oppress others and benefit themselves - - - how could that have happened? must be a few bad apples right, haha yeah bad apples.

Nothing to do with the entire structure of the system being designed to slowly lead people into this egotistical mania, so let's find someone to punish and when the scapegoats dead forget all about this whole thing!

I wonder if this will make people force the ptb to make the police force more open and transparently intergrated into society so that policemen wont be so likely to get an 'us vs them' mentality, will people demand that the police aren't treated like all powerful gods and made servants of the public once again..... probably not - They'll just demand an even deeper, more elite gang of even more powerful police police get some new secret powers...

Great article posted below on the use of "common law" to defeat these thieves on their own ground.

www.rense.com...

enjoy...

As long as the seizure law is legal and their use of it is appropriate, then I see no problem with seizing the cars. HOWEVER, they should never, ever be given to ANY official for their use, under any circumstances. They should be handled like every other seizure and auctioned off. Officials should NEVER be allowed to bid on them.

Who's to say that they see a someone riding down the road in a car that they'd like to have or that their superior would like to have and just make up a reason to be able to seize it. This is definitely a conflict of interest.

reply to post by Master_Wii


I am no lawyer, but I am a rhetorical scholar and critic....and this seems to be, at minimum, a conflict of interest.

Drug enforcement often seizes assets during drug busts. But this case was for a DWI???

And giving them to officials for personal use? Outrageous. It doesn't surprise me that it happens in Illinois, though.

Originally posted by memoir

Honestly, I'm not keen on the laws in this situation - can someone give me one good reason why state officials should ever have the right to claim my personal property?

The ONLY good reason for a police officer to cease your property is if its illegal. Examples would be drugs, paraphernalia, modified or unregistered weapons (in situations where that's illegal), and stolen property (which should be returned to its rightful owner).

What the police are doing here is not only in direct violation to the 4th amendment, but is essentially criminal. Just because someone was a "suspected drunk driver" - they didn't even specify if he was actually guilty! - doesn't mean the police have a right to his personal belongings. This is the police state at work, these officers believe they are above the law, and common decency.

Jeez I'm glad I don't live in Illinois. If the police seized any of my cars and started riding around in them for fun... it wouldn't be able to move for long. I think there would be some sabotage involved

reply to post by drwizardphd


Thank you for that. That's a very good point. I can completely understand them seizing my personal property if said property is illegal to own. Drugs and drug paraphanilia, illegal weapons, et cetera. But for them to seize my personal property that I've paid for with my own hard earned, overly-taxed-to-pay-their-salary income... I'd have to agree with above poster - if I couldn't drive it - nobody could. That vehicle would be obsolete.

Reminds me of this story:

www.telegraph.co.uk...

Powermongers will always abuse their power.

The same thing happens around here. I had a buddy who they got for three counts of distribution of marijuana (he was set up 3 different times before 3 undercover cops basically abducted him from a parking lot and told him he was either gonna help them bust his dealer, or they were gonna pin the 3 felonies on him), and they seized his car (a recent model Ford Mustang) and were going to turn it into an undercover cop car. He fought it in court and had to pay a lot of money to get it back, aside from all his other court expenses.

There's a brand new Dodge Charger cop car that goes around here too, and it actually has painted on the side "Donated by a Local Drug Dealer." Obviously they use the word "donated" liberally.

Cops are just becoming more and more like organized mafia, but what's new. This country is dirty and disgusting at its core.

I have covered this subject in depth with two threads I wrote:

Gangster, Criminal Police!

LAW Why were all governed by our own ignorance

reply to post by Master_Wii

Under Illinois law, vehicles and cash can be permanently confiscated by law enforcement as long as an officer asserts probable cause that it was involved in a drug crime.

For a car worth less than $20,000, a local police force can hold a car on its own authority up to 187 days before even filing notice with a court of law or allowing any sort of hearing. More expensive vehicles merit a hearing within 97 days of seizure. After this period, a court could initiate a forfeiture proceeding.

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY SEVEN DAYS???????????

More expensive cars get a hearing sooner....likely because their owners can afford legal consult!!!! Un flippin believable!




So was this a drug case, or no? I see no mention of it in the article......

I had some traffic issues in Illinois last year...You couldn't PAY me to live there!


[edit on 5-5-2009 by ThatDGgirl]

on CNN right now:

www.cnn.com...

TENAHA, Texas (CNN) -- Roderick Daniels was traveling through East Texas in October 2007 when, he says, he was the victim of a highway robbery.


Police in the small East Texas town of Tenaha are accused of unjustly taking valuables from motorists.

1 of 2 The Tennessee man says he was ordered to pull his car over and surrender his jewelry and $8,500 in cash that he had with him to buy a new car.

But Daniels couldn't go to the police to report the incident.

The men who stopped him were the police


cont....

Wow, more people in positions of authority abusing their power for personal gain. Who'd have thought it?

How many examples do we need to prove what we already know? People in positions of power will find any excuse they can to justify their actions and abuse their position for personal gain. It has happened throughout Human history and will continue.

Until people stand up and refuse to allow it, nothing will ever change. Tomorrow there'll be another story about a government or law enforcement official abusing their position, and it'll be reported on, they'll refuse to accept responsibility, and refuse any move to investigate it.

Government and law enforcement are in the same gang. One is not going to support action against another because they're all as corrupt as each other.

Originally posted by suzque66
1 of 2 The Tennessee man says he was ordered to pull his car over and surrender his jewelry and $8,500 in cash that he had with him to buy a new car.

That reminds me of another cop in my area (SW Virginia) who was locked up because he was seen approaching a known drug dealer on the streets and would make him hand over all the money he had in his pockets, "confiscating" it but really he wouldn't report it and just pocket it himself. Really not much different than what's depicted on a larger scale in the movie "American Gangster" in NYC.

[edit on 5-5-2009 by bsbray11]

maybe because shows like COPS or other issues make people ashamed and embarassed to be pulled over or arrested.

DON'T BE.

If it is unlawful, make sure you are in a public place and speak LOUDLY and answer the cop LOUD (if at all) and say stuff like:

'SO YOU ARE TAKING ME INTO CUSTODY BECAUSE I FARTED???"

'YOU ARE TAKING ME INTO CUSTODY AND JUST THREATENED ME BECAUSE MY SHIRT SMELLS LIKE RELISH????"

whatever his/her/cop problem is with you, make sure there are tons of witnesses, hopefully they will have cell-cams.

to make sure, scream:

'SO YOU ARE TAKING ME INTO CUSTODY BECAUSE MY CHILDREN ATTEND CATHOLIC SCHOOL???????"

I bet 50 people start popping their phones open to turn on vid to send to their friends. lol

Personally, I think the fine and jail/prison thing was sufficient punishment. Taking people's private property should only be in cases where cops can prove that illegal money was used to purchase such item.It is a cash cow system for many police departments and I don't expect changes anytime soon. Seems like everybody is getting a piece of the pie. Legal corruption, but corruption nonetheless.