Highway robbery? Texas police seize black motorists' cash, cars

[ariesgem]

TENAHA, Texas— You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana border if you're African-American, but you might not be able to drive out of it—at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.

That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: voluntarily sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.

More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with any crime.

...........


"We try to enforce the law here," said George Bowers, mayor of the town of 1,046 residents, where boarded-up businesses outnumber open ones and City Hall sports a broken window. "We're not doing this to raise money. That's all I'm going to say at this point."

But civil rights lawyers call Tenaha's practice something else: highway robbery. The attorneys have filed a federal class-action lawsuit to stop what they contend is an unconstitutional perversion of the law's intent, aimed primarily at blacks who have done nothing wrong.


...........

David Guillory, an attorney in Nacogdoches who filed the federal lawsuit, said he combed through Shelby County court records from 2006 to 2008 and discovered nearly 200 cases in which Tenaha police seized cash and property from motorists. In about 50 of the cases, suspects were charged with drug possession.

But in 147 others, Guillory said the court records showed, police seized cash, jewelry, cell phones and sometimes even automobiles from motorists but never found any contraband or charged them with any crime. Of those, Guillory said he managed to contact 40 of the motorists directly—and discovered all but one of them were black.

"The whole thing is disproportionately targeted toward minorities, particularly African-Americans," Guillory said. "None of these people have been charged with a crime, none were engaged in anything that looked criminal. The sole factor is that they had something that looked valuable."

........

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-texas-profiling_wittmar10,0,6051682.story

:mad:

[1620rock]

1. Cops again, rural toothless crazy hillbilly cops.

:mad:

[peacetalksforall]

2. "We try to enforce the law here," Tell it to the judge. Restitution, plus punitive damages.

[TahitiNut]

3. Sad to say ... I'd not shed a tear if that whole town were wiped out by some Act Of God.

That kind of corruption is far, far more than one bad cop.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=TENAHA,+Texas&ie=UTF8&split=0&gl=us&ei=Ehe3SfXVLJ-atweDvN2-CQ&t=h&z=13&iwloc=addr&layer=c&cbll=31.944081,-94.244072&panoid=-oPUdYQCXCHpsqoF_8Yu0w&cbp=12,0,,0,5

[tanngrisnir3]

4. This won't stand up under legal challenge, which, as it's now in the news...

likely won't be long.

Don't know if the money will still be there, though.

[MattBaggins]

7. Oh the money will be there.

The State isn't going to allow this to go beyond the county level if they can avoid it.

[stillcool]

5. There's that American style Justice!

What's a crime these days anyway?

[marmar]

6. Good f**king grief......

.... I find myself wishing that Santa Anna had won the Battle of the Alamo.

[norepubsin08]

8. Fucking Godamn Pigs their all like that

I hope this bankrupts this town and puts these asshole cops in prison!!!

[Doremus]

9. Let's hope Guillory stays safe. I wouldn't put anything past those scoundrels. nt

[tularetom]

10. Hey! Not all cops are corrupt thugs like these guys

The ones around here are just incompetent.

[Imagevision]

11. Don't draw any attention Florida freeways either...

[Incitatus]

12. 50 of the cases, suspects were charged with drug possession.

I wonder if these people refused to hand over their possessions and were set up.

[strategery blunder]

13. This is what is wrong with drug forfeiture laws.

The property can legally be seized regardless of whether or not a crime is alleged, because all the police have to do is fill out affidavit this, form that, and basically charge the inanimate object.

Of course this legally separates the property from its rightful owner, so there is NO DUE PROCESS.

And of course racist fuck police departments will use this loophole to run extortion rackets. :grr:

[Selatius]

24. I think that law was invented in order to destroy the 4th Amendment.

It drilled a gigantic hole through that barrier against unreasonable searches/seizures.

[BlooInBloo]

14. But white folks say it's not race, it's class...

And we would NEVER lie about something so important to us!!!

:rofl:

[AllentownJake]

15. Texas...why am I not surprised

Was Neil or Marvin involved...sounds like something they would engineer.

[struggle4progress]

16. One-stoplight town laid out rather like a strip-mall with a bunch of empty buildings

Major claim to fame: Tex Ritter mentioned it in a song about railroad stops

[ThoughtCriminal]

17. Here's a close up view

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=TENAHA,+Texas&ie=UTF8&split=0&gl=us&ei=xCu3SYq9IJGUsAPY_vXpAQ&ll=31.94762,-94.246109&spn=0,359.986267&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=31.943911,-94.244365&panoid=PkTwLXIrRtSc9WY0ZbSEqQ&cbp=12,248.26969363089026,,0,5

[struggle4progress]

18. Yep. Three gas stations in view, a restaurant, maybe a general store, a couple of churches,

and a gaggle of extortionists

[Lost in CT]

19. I fucking hate these bullshit seizures... fucking east texas....

I'm telling you the Hills have Eyes is a fucking documentary.

[Horse with no Name]

21. You got that right

recently my granddaughter told me that a friend of hers had to throw away a picture of Obama that they colored at school because her mommy wouldn't allow "that" in her house.
One thing I know, living here, we are in for some tumultuous times as the recession deepens. Even though Obama is NOT the cause of it, he will reap its ire from the very ones who voted for the bushthugs. To actually blame themselves for being stupid enough to vote for that is not going to be something some of these backwoodsers can do.

[Ilsa]

20. TX Sen.Whitmire has introduced legislation ...

that would "require police to go before a judge before attempting to seize property under the asset-forfeiture law—and ultimately Whitmire hopes to tighten the law further so that law-enforcement officials will be allowed to seize property only after a suspect is charged and convicted in a court."

This is actually an old story that finally made it up to the Chicago Tribune. Here it is in the Houston Chronicle. Shameful behavior by Tenaha law enforcement.

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2009_4699094

[Tejas]

22. A "sting" would be fantastic.

Pretty much like what 20/20 or Dateline did to the Vinton/Sulphur, LA LEO's.

[fishwax]

23. good lord

:grr: