Is this how it really is in America?

[Raz]

I was watching some cop show about sting busts where these black cops dressed as homeboys, their white counterparts where all hidden near by.....

So people would roll up, all white poor people and buy a little weed..(the crack hood was somewhere else)....As soon as the weed was through the car window, these wankers would fuckin jump outta their hiding place and bust these poor fuckers for buying a little weed!!....WTF.....And then nicely tell em that their car was now being seized and the property of some fuckin police dept...And these poor suckers would have to buy it back....

Man thats just legalised fuckin robbery....WTF has the car got to do with anything..?....So if your caught with drugs in your car in the states they can seize your vehicle?!!

Man is was so obvious that the crack hood was just around the corner, but these wankers were stinging poor fuckers just for buying a little weed!!

man, in the UK the cops would proberly just throw the stupid weed away...They wouldnt be bothered with the paperwork...The same out here in spain....

What is it with the states man?...These people werent causing no problems.Now they lost their cars and got a criminal record, all from buying weed from black cops....If the cops werent their stinging no one would be in trouble...Its like they are creating problems to justify their fuckin wages!!.....Supposedly for a free country, that sure is some backward thinking...

[pharmboy]

Yea Raz , thats pretty much how it is. Of course some places are worse than

others but all and all thats how it is.

[Seedy]

Fuck that's ridiculous, are you serious about the car being impounded? & they really have to buy it back? Fucking crazy. I've witnessed here in NZ some cops were called to a party at my house (can't remember the fuck why), & my mate had 3 or 4 little weed plants growing by a window and the cop just rips them out and throws them out the window, just giving a warning to the kids who were fighting or whatever. & another time we were smoking down an alley, got busted and the cops just made me hand over the weed (I just handed over a small tin, not the bag in my other pocket) and he threw it down a drain. It's just weed!

[Raz]

Brother thats how it is, not only do you get nicked by stinging police, but they take your car as well...

Now if that aint makin money outta drugs i dont know what the fuck is!!....

Without them setting up stings like this, there is no problem.....They are fuckin creating the problem and then supposedly "solving it" ....WTF....

[pharmboy]

I have heard that the DEA will target certain drug kingpins just because they

want to ( steal ) a certain mansion or certain land that they want. If your in

jail for life there ain't no buying it back. In fact I have never heard that they

let you buy anything back. They usually put it in an auction they have every

year. All kinds of stuff at this auction, boats, cars, houses, land, planes you

name it. It would be illegal in any other country but the U.S.

The DEA or drug kingpins, both are as bad as the other in my book, totally

no morals and money rules the world. Both are just totally fucked up people

with opposite views about drugs but it really all comes down to money.

Oh and from what I hear Los Vegas has the fucked uptist cops in the country.

If you have a felony you have to sign in at the police station before you enter

Los Vegas. Thats the only town I ever heard of doing that.

[marshalldylan1]

I'm wondering if I'm watching the same episode you are talking about right now.

They are doing the undercover busts. Undercover dresses like a thug, so people ask to buy drugs, then get arrested. Might be the same episode, but they probably just use this technique all the time so wouldn;t doubt it's different. How does arresting a person buying personal amounts do anything good. They should be arresting real criminals.

I've seen sometimes on COPS where the undercover will walk up to be people and ASK them if they needed any weed. When people said yes and made the transaction, they would arrest him. I guess entrapment really doesn't exist in the U.S.

Fuck tha police!

[Raz]

yep black cops undercover, askin people "wat ya need"?...weed, "then yeah i can hook ya up wiv that right here"....Sell a few bagsa weed and then step back and the white cops pounce...

Man this is some real disturbing shit...The black cops are just reinforcing everyday fuckin stereotypes, all blacks are drug dealers.And then their white counterparts feel good about nickin poor white people for weed.....
Fuck man. you got a sick fuckin system over there.And its no wonder people go apeshit and shoot the place up....I know for sure, they ruined my life over fuckin weed, then i would have to do something.:mad:

this episode had some wanker cop with an earing telling this kid" see them rims you put on this ride, well their ours now, dept of shit property"......Wat a fuckin system, something to be real proud of!!...Fuckin hell, now you see why asshole cops get executed...

[EleusisII]

Raz: The logic is as follows: You used your car to commit a criminal offence, hence it'll be seized.
It's a really fucked up law, that was originally made to target big time drug smugglers and so on, but like with all other laws, it's a slippery slide to take away regular folks rights.

The classic: "Fuck the Police" by NWA does come to mind here.

Thank god that in Denmark it's actually ILLEGAL for cops to act like undercover dealer/prostitutes whatever. The reasoning is that the undercover copper might encourage somebody to commit a crime that they wouldn't otherwise have done. Makes damn good sense if you ask me.

Guess the lesson here is: Park the car, and walk the goddamn two blocks if you're trying to score. ;)

[Raz]

its plain ol entrapment....what about some poor mentally disabled fuck, "want some weed"?...Garenteed he's gonna say "yes"..Wats next taking disabled smokers fucking wheelchair, just coz he rode up in it to smoke a joint?.....

Man i never ever thought America wa soooo fucked up......cross that place off my to visit list..:(

[upstate_007]

It's bad over here, but not quite as bad as shows like that make it seem. I would say that a "sting" like that (especially for a little weed) is not common at all. Especially in bigger cities.

The piggies do sting operations though. Usually for shit like crack or heroin. Seizing the vehicle varies from state to state. Some places it is not legal for them to seize your car for a drug arrest.

I think that the government and police like having shows like that on TV to put some fear into people when it comes to drugs. By showing scenes like the one Raz described it puts a thought in your head that the next time you buy some weed from someone on the street...they might be an undercover cop. Like on the show "Cops". On that show, the cops always always win. It sends a message to most people that if you fuck with drugs, the cops will find you and take you to jail no matter what. Most of us on Opi know better though. We know our rights. Even if the police don't respect our rights all the time.

Truthfully, I have been caught with weed a few times and got let go. A lot of cops really don't want the hassle involved in arresting you for something small like a few grams of weed. They either dump it on the ground or confiscate it (for themselves I imagine).

[Raz]

i think this was down in florida somewhere......But it really gives you the impression that if you dont join the "Team" in America, then your fucked.....Police and the man can do what the fuck they like....

[OxyContinuously]

ur right about that Raz in that a lot of cops in the US abuse their power and authority

[Papa Verine]

Upstate is right. They don't waste their time busting people for weed in Chicago either. I've been caught with weed in this city many times. A couple times they made me dump it out/throw it away. One time these 2 cops opened up a cigarette box I had with these 2 big round buds in it. This was some Humbolt county bud when everybody else around here was smoking Mexican schwag. This cop looks inside the box and says "Damn!" Then he takes one bud out, put it in his shirt pocket, left the other one in the box and threw it back on the seat of the car. He said "That's not what we're looking for". If it was crack or heroin I would've probably gone to jail. But not for weed... My oldest brother was a Chicago cop for a couple years. He smoked weed and so did most of his cop friends. It's not a big deal.

I, too saw that episode of COPS and was just as shocked as you Raz. I couldn't fuckin believe those PIGS didn't have anything better to do!!!

[clinton]

i watched this one yesterday..
one guy got arrested for having two little buds...
wtf!

[Tea Time]

I was watching some cop show about sting busts where these black cops dressed as homeboys, their white counterparts where all hidden near by.....

So people would roll up, all white poor people and buy a little weed..(the crack hood was somewhere else)....As soon as the weed was through the car window, these wankers would fuckin jump outta their hiding place and bust these poor fuckers for buying a little weed!!....WTF.....And then nicely tell em that their car was now being seized and the property of some fuckin police dept...And these poor suckers would have to buy it back....

Man thats just legalised fuckin robbery....WTF has the car got to do with anything..?....So if your caught with drugs in your car in the states they can seize your vehicle?!!

Yup. That's what our "War On Drugs" is all about...:mad:

Upstate_007 is right that the stings are usually set up to catch cocaine and heroin sales. That's not to say that they don't target people selling marijuana; they definitely do. But like I said, crack and heroin are target far more often.

As for taking the cars, that definitely does happen. They are called Asset Forfeiture laws. HERE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_forfeiture) is a basic description of how it works. Supposedly, they were written to go after major drug dealers and drug smugglers that make millions of dollars selling drugs.

It is not something that is across the board though. Different jurisdictions have different Asset Forfeiture laws in place, but essentially Asset Forfeiture laws give the police the right to confiscate anything that is obtained from the commission of a crime or anything used during the commission of a crime.

If that sounds vague and sketchy to you, you are right...The laws are very vague and general. Because of that, the laws are open to interpretation...which in turn causes different jurisdictions to apply and enforce the Asset Forfeiture laws differently. It also leads to abuse by police departments.

There have been many examples of police corruption involving Asset Forfeiture laws. Like Pharmboy mentioned, they seize houses, cars, boats, jewelery - pretty much everything that might have been purchased with drug money. What's really shady is that the burden of proof falls on the owner...NOT on the police department. The owner must furnish evidence to prove that houses, cars, boats, etc. were not purchased with drug money. If they are unable to do so, these items will be seized.

With how the Asset Forfeiture laws are written in most jurisdictions, the property seized by a certain police department or a certain unit in a police department is either auctioned off with the proceeds returned to that department or unit within a department. Sometimes the property is even used by the department itself. For example, the narcotics unit can use seized vehicles as unmarked units for undercover work. The narcotics unit can also use the proceeds for the sale of seized property to buy equipment or pay overtime - pretty much whatever they need to use it for.

So you can definitely see where corruption can come into play. With the budget constraints that most police departments face, the money brought in from property seizures is absolutely necessary. Since the money from property seizures gets funneled right back into the department, some of these shady, overzealous cops go WAY overboard with the property seizures. They really try to push the envelope with what they can seize and for what reason.

A couple years back, I remember hearing on the news that a smaller police department in Texas was being sued for their property seizure tactics. They were going WAY too far. One of the guys that was suing had his car seized when he propositioned a cop that was undercover as a prostitute.

Another lady was suing because her car was seized because she was transporting "counterfeit merchandise" inside of it. It turns out that she had gone to some sort of swap meet and she purchased a "knock-off" handbag and a pair of "knock-off" pair of sunglasses. She was pulled over for something unrelated (like speeding or something - I can't remember exactly) and the cop saw the "knock-off" handbag and sunglasses and arrested her for transporting counterfeit merchandise. He then seized her car for using it while committing a crime. :mad: Like I said, it was a few years ago so I don't remember the exact details, but I know that she won her lawsuit and was awarded a lot of money. I don't remember if the guy won his lawsuit or not.

But yeah Raz, to answer your question: Yes it really is like that over here. It is absolute BULLSHIT!!! :mad:

[underide]

Man is was so obvious that the crack hood was just around the corner, but these wankers were stinging poor fuckers just for buying a little weed!!

man, in the UK the cops would proberly just throw the stupid weed away...They wouldnt be bothered with the paperwork...The same out here in spain....

.

Yeah, over here too

i have been caught smoking a joint in a park twice and both times all that cops did was search us, take our hash off us, took down our names and details, etc...and just let us go on the sopt

A mate of mine was even let go when the coppers found a 20 euro bag of H on him.
Just took it away from him and let him off telling him not to come back to the area again or he'd be nicked
And that's with HEROIN, not just weed

And even if some folks are brought to the station with a few bags of gear/heroin on them, the vast majority of times you're just let out of the station right away with no more than a caution

It's way differrent in terms of drug dealing over here , though
I think Over 99% of street dealers over here are not in it for the money - the vast majority of streed dope peddlers here are actually junkies themselves and are not in it for the money, but only selling to support their own habits. And the cops know that

So yeah, it is way more liberal over here regarding being caught with dope.
A lot probably depends on the copper who caught you, as some of them are right pricks and would take you down to the station for just one bag of gear and shake you down for anything else you might have, just to be pricks to some homeless junky.
but a lot of the time if you only have no more than a few bags for your own consumption, you're just let off with no more than a 'caution', even if they caught you before

The notion of busting folks for needles/spikes/paraphenalia, is a very foreign one indeed over here.
You are never even cautioned for having spikes on you. new spikes or used spikes - doesn't make a difference.

I have read some articles about folks in the US being busted for 'residue' on your spoons, syringes, and being charged for possession of literally microscopic traces of H.
That really gotta suck if this is true.

If someone told a local junkie over here that he's gonna get charged for having a microscopic trace of heroin found on his syrringe he'll just laugh in your face. That's because such practice is non-existent here.

It seems that some of you US folks really have it tough compared to some EU countries like ours, UK, Spain. Norway, etc.

But on the other hand, Europe is not quite as liberal as some would like to claim or believe, either.
There is definitely still a lot of discrimination towards (hard) drug users from the general public, and it mostly stems from the discontentment for having to pay taxes to be able to provide methadone and drug treatment free of charge over here, so the general public is not too happy about that, and as of late there are even vigilante groups (actually they have existed since earily 80's, i believe, and were much more violent back then) that like to take matters into their own hands and forcibly evict, assault and just plain degrade anyone who they see as down and out or a junky

[Duckfeet]

It's gotten really bad, where they can--and do--confiscate your property, and *you* have to prove it's yours, and pay impounding fees, all kinds of shit...*if* you beat the original bust in the first place......Once we allowed the government to consider our *bodies* their property, and tell us what we can ingest, it was just a small leap to confiscating other property we own...oh a long time ago, 20 years or more, the cops didn't bother too much w/users, and focused more of their energy on dealers...but that was too much trouble, and so in last decade or so, the focus has been more and more on *users* and also the crackdown on medical doctors...the whole thing is bullshit...including the medicalization of our decision to use drugs...by calling this a *disease* it then allows judges to throw us into treatment centers, and probation for years...and then they own us...welcome to slavery....prison awaits...

All capitalist systems are based on a respect for *property* beginning w/one's own body...our willingness to allow the constitution to just be thrown out the window when it was other people being terrorized--blacks--has now come home to roost...

And it's why Ron Paul was only man telling the truth...we're doomed...

[Raz]

I dont wanna come off like the Uk or spain are some liberal paradise...Coz there not.
.But in the uk we have the director of public prosecutions and cps(crown prosecution service) and the basic ethos of their practice is wether its in the public interest to prosecute or not...

This ethos has worked its way down to the local coppper....But if your makin a lotta money from selling "tings" and you cant prove where your income comes from.Then you will lose it...But it is only used in what UK ol bill call "Target criminals", well most of the time that is....Although if they did stumble on someone who fits the criteria then their wonga will be seized too....

But fuck no way would it be used on some poor fucker just trying to get a buzz...That is just robbery man,plain and simple....

[losangeleslifer]

That episode of cops, I think they were selling dimes or nickel bags, something so petty it was ridiculous. I remember counting the number of officers involved and thinking what a fucking waste of money/resources. Probably cost the tax payers $500 to stop a $100 dollars of transactions. And they were seizing cars. I guess that justified the spending.

Pretty outrageous shit. But, thats how our legal/justice system works, and the fact is there isnt a damn thing we can do about it.

[sopark4000]

Plain and simple answer to your question: YES it is quite unfortunately like that here in the US I live on long island and luckily even though the cops are abrasive as hell the kind of situation you explained doesn't happen that often in my area. As for having to buy the car back you don't have to pay the full price of the car you just pay a fee usually not more than a few hundred dollars depending on the crime committed. It is a very fucked up mentality that cops use in our country some a good number of cops in my area will let you off for an amount of weed that is obviously for personal use and then there are the few who are a couple of hound dogs and will literally take you in for a 20 bag of weed a friend of mine was arrested for a 20 bag a few years ago when I was in the car with him and they didn't search me so that when they arrested my friend they wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of towing his car and filling the paperwork out they could just leave it with me so in the end I followed the cops to the station just so I could bail my friend out for 150 dollars no more than 10 minutes after he had gotten there in a situation like this I have to say that it is like a form of "legal" robbery of kidnapping when you think about it.

[Badly Drawn Girl]

I
Man thats just legalised fuckin robbery....WTF has the car got to do with anything..?....So if your caught with drugs in your car in the states they can seize your vehicle?!!

Oh yeah... you should see the police vehicle auctions! I'm very lucky because I got caught with paraphernalia, some crack, and some pain pills in my car. They could have kept my car... period. I was locked up with a girl who had been caught with some ecstasy pills in her car... and they seized the car. It's fucked up.

The weed issue really depends on where you are in the US. Here in Washington it's definitely a low priority. You can get off with a warning, or a ticket. The cops aren't interested in people who have a little bit for personal use.

[SHELLEY]

yep black cops undercover, askin people "wat ya need"?...weed, "then yeah i can hook ya up wiv that right here"....Sell a few bagsa weed and then step back and the white cops pounce...

Man this is some real disturbing shit...The black cops are just reinforcing everyday fuckin stereotypes, all blacks are drug dealers.And then their white counterparts feel good about nickin poor white people for weed.....
Fuck man. you got a sick fuckin system over there.And its no wonder people go apeshit and shoot the place up....I know for sure, they ruined my life over fuckin weed, then i would have to do something.:mad:

this episode had some wanker cop with an earing telling this kid" see them rims you put on this ride, well their ours now, dept of shit property"......Wat a fuckin system, something to be real proud of!!...Fuckin hell, now you see why asshole cops get executed...

yes this happens
sometimes the "criminal" can see right thru the undercover
and so we say 'no thank you' and walk away cuz we know he's a cop
then the cop chases us, tazers us for refusing his offer,
and takes us to jail for 'resisting arrest w/o violence' and NO OTHER CHARGE
how can we be resisting arrest when we weren't under arrest until we resisted, you may ask
i dunno... but this happens too [personal experience]

[NV12]

I was watching some cop show about sting busts where these black cops dressed as homeboys, their white counterparts where all hidden near by.....

So people would roll up, all white poor people and buy a little weed..(the crack hood was somewhere else)....As soon as the weed was through the car window, these wankers would fuckin jump outta their hiding place and bust these poor fuckers for buying a little weed!!....WTF.....And then nicely tell em that their car was now being seized and the property of some fuckin police dept...And these poor suckers would have to buy it back....

Man thats just legalised fuckin robbery....WTF has the car got to do with anything..?....So if your caught with drugs in your car in the states they can seize your vehicle?!!

Man is was so obvious that the crack hood was just around the corner, but these wankers were stinging poor fuckers just for buying a little weed!!

man, in the UK the cops would proberly just throw the stupid weed away...They wouldnt be bothered with the paperwork...The same out here in spain....

What is it with the states man?...These people werent causing no problems.Now they lost their cars and got a criminal record, all from buying weed from black cops....If the cops werent their stinging no one would be in trouble...Its like they are creating problems to justify their fuckin wages!!.....Supposedly for a free country, that sure is some backward thinking...

1. Money
2. Money
3. Money

[Tea Time]

...As for having to buy the car back you don't have to pay the full price of the car you just pay a fee usually not more than a few hundred dollars depending on the crime committed.

This is actually not correct. You are talking about a vehicle being "impounded" after a person is arrested for one reason or another. When you are arrested, your vehicle is towed to the impound lot. You are taken to jail. Whenever you are released, you must pay an exorbitant amount of money to get your vehicle out of the impound lot. They charge you for towing the vehicle and impounding the vehicle. If the vehicle stays there for more than one day, they also charge a ridiculously high storage fee. In addition, theft from the vehicle and damage to the vehicle are common...however the impound lot claims that they are not responsible for lost/stolen property or for damage to the vehicle or property. :mad:

As bad as that is, Asset Forfeiture is much, much worse. Whereas you still own the vehicle when it is impounded, you no longer own the vehicle once they decide to enforce the Asset Forfeiture laws. You automatically forfeit the vehicle and it is now owned by the county. From that point on, they can do anything with the vehicle that they want to. Sometimes the vehicles are used by the department, but most often they are sold at auction. When they are sold at auction, there is no guarantee that you will even get a chance to bid on/purchase the car. They are not required to notify you of when the auction is either. So while it is not impossible that you could buy your vehicle back, it is *EXTREMELY* unlikely. Compared to Asset Forfeiture, having your vehicle impounded seems like a good thing!!! :mad:

yes this happens
sometimes the "criminal" can see right thru the undercover
and so we say 'no thank you' and walk away cuz we know he's a cop
then the cop chases us, tazers us for refusing his offer,
and takes us to jail for 'resisting arrest w/o violence' and NO OTHER CHARGE
how can we be resisting arrest when we weren't under arrest until we resisted, you may ask
i dunno... but this happens too [personal experience]

You're right Shelley...I've heard of that happening too! The other thing that they try to use is "Failure To ID" even if that didn't actually happen. But they charge you with Failure To ID just to give them a reason to arrest you and take you in.

I can't remember who it was, but someone here on Opiophile had something like that happen. Even though he hadn't actually done anything wrong, they ended up charging him with "Attempted Possession of a Controlled Substance" or some bullshit charge like that. I can't remember who it was though...

[I-Nod]

That's the "War on Drugs" for ya! Glad they got those hard-nosed criminals off our streets... shit... just think what could've happened if those dirty pot-heads wouldn't have walked into that sting!! They could have very well bought & eaten all the Oreo cookies at the 7-11... or <shudder> drank straight out of the Slurpy machine!!

I know I'll sleep better tonight knowing that box of Twinkies I left in my van has NO chance of being stolen by those damn pot-heads w/ their cotton-mouthed munchies! :D

Seriously, the Drug War is highway robbery in plain daylight. Some day we'll stand and revolt, I hope. After all... we do have one of the largest standing army's in the world (due to citizens being armed... (but for how long?)). This is getting ridiculous...