Wholy smoke, is this real?

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The cops are just short cutting the tax system. Other than that, not much difference. But, yeah this should really [censored] the feds off....some renegades honing in on their action.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear


I used to carry around $10k to pay for wedding expense, to a restaurant that offer different rate based on payment method.


I suspect they may have kept two sets of books.
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If you ever buy a used car you will know a lot of seller don't trust personal check, and a lot of buyer don't trust giving a check in advance before actually getting the item.


Agreed, and sometimes you plan to haggle, so a check would get in the way of that. If some bozo tried to buy a car from me with a check, I'd say... okay, let's go to the bank, you cash it, I'll give you the title right at the teller window...
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
I suspect they may have kept two sets of books.
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You bet!!! But that doesn't make me a drug dealer.

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Agreed, and sometimes you plan to haggle, so a check would get in the way of that. If some bozo tried to buy a car from me with a check, I'd say... okay, let's go to the bank, you cash it, I'll give you the title right at the teller window...


Then when you drive or get a ride to your bank to deposit the cash you are arrested for drug dealing.
 
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I though you were against government abuse? Since when does government stop people on the street and check for the amount of cash they carry?

I guess the sarcasm wasn't slapped on thick enough.
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And since when did the FED let people off a drug related charge if they surrender their cash?

You don't even have to be charged to have your property taken.

How's that for due process?
 
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Then there is the education level and credit history thing. Not everyone has a checking account and not everyone has an ATM/Credit card.


One of the newer evolutions in poor penalties is if you've got too poor a bad check record (overdrafts) or a couple of other issues, you're databased and cannot get a checking account. That feeds the check cashing outfits ..which means that all of your transactions will most likely be in cash
 
The first buyer of the home I sold in 2007 showed up to the appraisal and paid for it in cash.

I told oilBabe right then that was a bad sign.

Her, the eternal optimist said no, it doesn't mean anything.

When I had nearly all my stuff in storage mere days before closing only to find out her loan was not approved, I was pretty ticked off.

Seems she couldn't get a checking account, but was trying to buy a house.

Some people.

Tried to get me to put up her earnest money in exchange for a higher price on the home. I said no, we had a deal and she needs to get it funded or pay for my storage.

We came to an agreement to get her to withdraw her offer. I sold the home to a young Veteran who was getting out of the Army.
 
Maybe I just misread the story???? History of doing this and a big stink only comes out now? Yet everyone who has been "robbed" for years is likely not guilty?

It is a tough thing... If you're profiled, and not guilty, it is a bad thing... If you are reaping the advantage of the profiling, it is a good thing.

NJ had an issue with racial profiling a few years back, and after they had to make a concerted effort to avoid such claims, drug busts and other crimes being caught dropped by 80% or something crazy.

Unfortunately there is some truth to the reasons why the police may profile some folks... Doesnt make it nice, and I don't wish it on anyone... but until there is definite data that says that any crime does not disproportionate to any one group... guess what human nature is going to do, wrong or right?

And some of us reap safety and security, others are harmed. The world stinks, doesnt it?

I dont wish it on anyone, it is lousy, but I cannot imagine that any one of these people, if they were smart and/or hard working enough to save cash to buy a car, squeaky clean enough to not be guilty of anything, and robbed by the police... would have a story to tell worthy of a big lawsuit, TV expose, etc. at case #1... Seems this is common, yet nobody does anything about it... until one person makes a stink... Well, why didnt the last 586 people before make a stink? Surely if they were totally clean of any guilt, open and honest, they would have.

It is easy to make up a story afterwards...

Innocent until proven guilty, but we only really have one side of the story, and it is a story that obviously sells... Id love to see if there is a record/proof of anything suspicious. If not, I'd love to know why all the other "wronged" people didnt make a bigger to-do previously... I'd sure be angry if someone took $5000 of my money with no real cause. It wouldnt take long for my story to get out to every available outlet and higher-reaching governmental entity out there... provided I did have a squeaky clean story that couldnt be faulted...
 
JHZ - Without going into it in detail, all I can say is that for one reason or another (where you live, lack of experience with other socio economic classes, whatever) you are just incredibly naive about the way things work in the world, and especially in the South, and for minorities and those low on income scale.

We also have racial killings, false arrests, planted and falsified evidence, evidence withheld by the prosecution, shoddy DNA labs, uninvestigated alibys, etc, etc, etc. Casual reads of any southern paper will tell you this.

And what the H does being "squeeky clean" have to do with not wanting to be victimized for THIS?? Your rational sounds like the parent that says "I hit you because you must have done SOMETHING wrong, even if I didn't see it", and then wants to be respected as honest and aboveboard.

Your class based biased is showing.

Edit: P.S. There is more than enough statistical evidence about race biased law enforcement, if you care to look.
 
As I said, none of this is good, nice, fun, happy or appreciated. I am well aware that all sorts of horrible things do occur.

That doesnt mean that in this day and age, that there isnt plenty of opportunity to get away from it if one wanted to. This isnt 100 years ago, where you can't escape town without getting run down. In this day and age, those on the LOWER end of the income scale have (a) fancier cars than I do, (b) fancier phones and phone plans than I do, (c) cable/satellite TV, etc.

This is noticed, by most everybody, in the worst sections of Camden, West Philadelphia, Jersey City, etc., etc. It is not a made-up situation.

Now, maybe the "lower end" of the income spectrum in the south doesnt have all these creature comforts that those up here do. Why? how? something isnt quite right... is it?

I will gladly concede that the far rural south is a different world, but mobility, communications, and information moves so fast these days that it surely moves to these places too... LA (lower alabama) isn't that barren of a wasteland...

My point is that given all of the communication, mobility, acessibility to all sorts of stuff on all levels, that the stories can get out. People can move. The "bad" can get flushed out. So I simply ask my (naive) question once again...

For all these folks who have been free, clear and clean, moving through this town, with huge amounts of cash, and on good business missions to do good deeds in good faith... why didnt their story surface before today? Surely the businessman with $50k cash buying a restarant could have broadcast his story to all outlets (and surely he has a lawyer if running a business), and had an easier time than waiting for this...

If you can afford to have $5000 or $8500 cash, you arent the super poor. You probably have a cellphone, internet, TV, and some mobility already. Why not make this loud and obvious far earlier than this?
 
Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels

Edit: P.S. There is more than enough statistical evidence about race biased law enforcement, if you care to look.


Good or bad??? Nobody likes to accept it, but the studies that were broadcast in NJ showed that most arrests and busts were significantly reduced after the major crackdown on racial profiling laws came about.

I don't endorse this site, but I found some of the data that I spoke of (from ca. 2001) on it here .
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The New York Times reported in February that, "The New Jersey State Police said last week that the number of drug arrests on the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike fell last year, after the department came under scrutiny for racial profiling. The number of drug charges resulting from stops on the turnpike were 370 last year, compared with 494 drug charges in 1999. There were 1,269 charges filed in 1998. On the parkway, troopers reported 350 drug charges last year compared with 783 in 1999 and 1,279 in 1998."

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If police have a goal of maximizing drug arrests, they may indeed find that they can achieve this most easily by focusing on minorities. Blacks on I-95 in Maryland, for instance, had a significantly higher initial propensity to carry drugs in the car than did whites. "Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," a 1999 study by University of Pennsylvania professors John Knowles, Nicola Persico, and Petra Todd, shows that despite the fact that blacks were stopped three-and-a-half times more than whites, they were as likely to be carrying drugs. But this doesn't mean their propensity to carry is the same. The Penn professors conclude they are displaying what they call "statistical discrimination" (i.e., the police are operating on the basis of class probability) rather than racial prejudice. Perhaps more to the point, they conclude that the police are primarily motivated by a desire to maximize drug arrests.


Im not calling any one race, class or group, more trouble, crime, drug, or problem prone than the next. I'm just saying that (a) the data does seem to exist to indicate that there is something to the "profiling" bit, and (b) the media, communication and mobility avenues exist, and have existed for the last 10+ years, such that anyone who has the desire, and the clean record to, can make themselves heard long before now... to an overwhelming response.

Maybe Im just too far off ??????
 
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For all these folks who have been free, clear and clean, moving through this town, with huge amounts of cash, and on good business missions to do good deeds in good faith... why didnt their story surface before today?


The same reason a field tramp doesn't file a complaint about rape. Being right doesn't mean that you'll get justice ..even if you fight for it.

Unfortunately, some people do know their place and know when to cut their losses.
 
JHZR2... and (b) the media said:
Basically yes. When "the system" takes advantage of the already disadvantaged once (if not on a more regular basis), why would they expect that same system to suddenly come to their rescue?

Obviously this seems like circular reasoning, and it would be nice to be grounded to something verifiable somewhere in the reasoning process.

But do you really believe that (for instance) a roofer is going to understand the ins and outs of our judicial system, our media system? If I were in that situation not only would I not expect the system to take up for me, I would be seriously concerned about it's retribution.

I see more and more coverage about these types of instances, but it is because they are becoming more believable due to their frequency that the media covers them.

It comes down to who you believe. You believe in our systems. That is OK, to a point. I have had personal experience with systems that serve the powerful, and people who are taken advantage of by those systems. I also know that taking advantage of people is often an unstated but tacitly understood goal of those systems.

I agree that profiling is a difficult issue, and I don't assume that everyone who is profiled is innocent. But I also know that power corrupts, and that those in power often get carried away and lose their objectivity. When you take someone's money or belongings based solely on speculation, without proof or a trial, and then justify it, you are seriously off track by any objective standard.
 
They busted a cop in Miami last week that was ripping off drug dealers - cash, guns, drugs for the past four years.
It was only a matter of time until Internal Affairs got calls from unhappy drugs dealers that complained they were being ripped off.

I used to go riding with my brother's friend who is a cop and there is nothing wrong with a cop profiling or using their instinct to know something isn't right when they pull a person over.
 
Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
When "the system" takes advantage of the already disadvantaged once (if not on a more regular basis), why would they expect that same system to suddenly come to their rescue?



It is small town crimes vs. state capitol investigation and cross-country media... That is my point.

At some level we may all not trust the government, but at some level, the media is always looking for a story with which to sell advertising, and the officials at a higher level are looking to marginally look out for others in order for a good story to maintain the votes.

If the "disadvantaged" person is not smart or capable enough to figure out at least some of the basics of "the system", I dont know that anyone can help them, unfortunately. If they want something enough, they can make it happen. The American dream and the American way are not so far broken or [censored] that this is impossible, again, especially given the access to mobility, media and communications.

But I also see your points, which are very valid, and worthy of my consideration and learning from.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
When "the system" takes advantage of the already disadvantaged once (if not on a more regular basis), why would they expect that same system to suddenly come to their rescue?



It is small town crimes vs. state capitol investigation and cross-country media... That is my point.

At some level we may all not trust the government, but at some level, the media is always looking for a story with which to sell advertising, and the officials at a higher level are looking to marginally look out for others in order for a good story to maintain the votes.

If the "disadvantaged" person is not smart or capable enough to figure out at least some of the basics of "the system", I dont know that anyone can help them, unfortunately. If they want something enough, they can make it happen. The American dream and the American way are not so far broken or [censored] that this is impossible, again, especially given the access to mobility, media and communications.

But I also see your points, which are very valid, and worthy of my consideration and learning from.


JHZ - First of all, let me say that I appreciate your tolerance. I let my hot buttons get triggered, and violated my own belief that everyone comes by their opinions honestly, even if I can't begin to understand how.

I agree that many of the people we are discussing could figure out "the system", given time. But for them, time is exactly what they don't have. On a purely logical basis, if you have been ripped off, do you gamble on MAYBE getting it back sometime in the future through investing your time to get publicity, or get busy trying to earn that money back? We have to assume that for most these are not discretionary funds, but ones for a major, life facilitating purpose. Emotional and justice based reactions are luxuries, nice to indulge in, but not helpful to getting on with your life.

Now, as you allude, this assumes that the people were truly taken advantage of by the system, and not trying to take advantage of it. But I have to assume that the system has the power advantage, and by nature serves the interests of the class that created it. Nor are media all powerful - in the last few years we have seen on a national level how strings are pulled to manipulate coverage. Even at a local level, I can imagine how "strings are pulled" to influence stories.

Thanks again for the civil discussion.
 
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