John Oliver on Civil Asset Forfeiture

Oliver nails it with one of the most powerful and entertaining pieces to inform the public about this travesty.

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13 Responses to John Oliver on Civil Asset Forfeiture

  1. DdC says:

    OT? Fear Mongers have been around a while…

    Moral Panics Of 1878:
    NY Times Warns People About The Evils Of Thomas Edison’s Aerophone

    Something ought to be done to Mr. EDISON, and there is a growing conviction that it had better be done with a hemp rope.

    Mr. EDISON has invented too many things, and almost without exception they are things of the most deleterious character. He has been addicted to electricity for many years, and it is not very long ago that he became notorious for having discovered a new force, though he has since kept it carefully concealed, either upon his person or elsewhere.

    Recently he invented the phonegraph, a machine that catches the lightest whisper of conversation and stores it up, so that at any future time it can be brought out, to the confusion of the original speaker. This machine will eventually destroy all confidence between man and man, and render more dangerous than ever woman’s want of confidence in woman.

  2. Spirit Wave says:

    Brilliantly done. Hopefully the necessary undeniably powerful and righteous public backlash ends up being promptly equally brilliantly done.

    Our nation was clearly established against law abuse (according to the U.S. Declaration of Independence), but that fact has been effectively ignored for over two centuries (and counting) with terrible results.

    Corruption has always had a home in our nation and abroad, and ultimately corruption may be synonymous with imperfection (and therefore a permanent part of reality, because perfection is impossible within reality).

    You want to corrupt a saint? Simply remove the right option(s), so the saint must choose a misfitting (so corrupting) alternative, and then lambast that saint for doing so.

    That said, most people remain unaware of the hardcore scientific logic concluding that no one ever gets away with corruption (including law abuse).

    The most credible application of science currently concludes that reality is an ocean of energy from humanity’s perspective (e.g. particle/wave duality in quantum physics shows particles act as waves, Einstein’s famous equation shows mass is highly condensed energy, and String/M Theory shows a subatomic particle is a modulating string of energy).

    There is no doubt that literally every system within reality that humanity has ever encountered requires balance for stability, and at least given the modulating (so balancing) needs of reality (which lines up perfectly with the law of physics saying every action is an opposite and equal reaction), there is no uncorrupted reason to deny that reality itself (with its demonstrably perfect winning record against anyone within reality) also requires balance for stability.

    The net result is clear. Anyone as a collection of matter (i.e. energy seamlessly part of reality) cannot screw over another collection of matter without ultimately paying in full for it.

    If you’re interested, here’s more on this apparently fresh new look at hardcore science: http://spiritwave.wordpress.com/reality-waveform-theory

    Humanity needs to promptly learn that getting away with abuse is scientifically impossible, at least according to the best application of science today.

    Basically, ‘certain drug’ prohibitionists (among all other law abusers) owe reality big time for all of the suffering they have caused (and continue to cause), and there is no escaping their proper fate (even death will not save them). Such prohibitionists understanding this sound conclusion, however, can stop their obviously failed prohibition now to minimize the amount of compensating suffering needed for reality’s balance.

    They can join the rest of us (i.e. perception alteration fans) to properly educate (interestingly by fully honest entertainment) amateurs about the risk of such alteration in any of its many forms to minimize (if impossible to prevent) perception alteration abuse.

    Agreed?

    • claygooding says:

      Mankind is hardwired to seek pleasure,,any laws prohibiting pleasure will turn into a never ending battle.

      The forfeiture laws were enacted to combat a pleasure market and evolved into a beast due to greed and the natural tendency of man to take a mile when given an inch.

      How much this was enhanced by not hiring officers with sufficient IQ to question some of these laws may be a factor in how quickly the greed is spreading but if all you hire is stupid then eventually stupid makes it to the top.

  3. Dave in IL says:

    That was just excellent. I’m very impressed with Oliver’s show so far.

    Pennies from heaven indeed! Who needs the occasional dirty cop taking money off a dealer. Its much more effective to legalize the whole process, right?

  4. Servetus says:

    Elections are clearly approaching. With each election comes the fear mongers. Where there’s fear, there’s the drug panic. Representative Tom Cotton (R-AR, 4th District), is running for the U.S. Senate. He’s just played the drugs card with the ISIS card, and he is claiming he’s holding two-of-a-kind:

    Groups like the Islamic State collaborate with drug cartels in Mexico who have clearly shown they’re willing to expand outside the drug trade into human trafficking and potentially even terrorism.

    “They could infiltrate our defenseless border and attack us right here in places like Arkansas.

    Yup, according to Rep. Cotton, if people smoke marijuana, ISIS will march right down main street, Little Rock, USA. White Arkansas women will marry dope-smoking, dark-skinned, Arab Muslims, and produce hundreds of little Islamic mini-terrorists. Christmas will be prohibited by Sharia law. Arkansas will be decimated by Ebola. People in Arkansas won’t make enough money to forfeit any to the cops. All because of drugs.

    The truly sad part of this is that Tom Cotton will likely win the election and become the new U.S. Senator from Arkansas—bad news for the rest of the country. Prohibition always creates and encourages the worst political leaders in the world.

    • Tony Aroma says:

      So, the logical conclusion would be to legalize drugs and put the cartels out of business. Is it just me, or does it sound like he’s saying if you support prohibition, you support ISIS.

  5. Frank W. says:

    “Prohibition always creates and encourages the worst political leaders in the world.” Yes indeedy! I hope we also see some heroes.

  6. Duncan2003 says:

    .
    .

    So has everyone seen the “latest” “scientific” study listing the horrid dangers of cannabis? Well, it’s not actually new. It’s a compendium of “scientific” studies that have been discredited over the last 20 years. I’ve got to admit it, while there’s no question that the prohibitionists are idiots, they stand by their stupidity come hell or high hippies.

    Marijuana Study: Long-Term Use ‘Causes Cancer and Schizophrenia’

    Well, speaking of the canard of cannabis caused schizophrenia…not that long ago I posted a link to a map color coder by how much a Country suffered from schizophrenia on a nationwide level. Well here it is as a list:

    World Health Organization ranked 192 Countries by how much they suffer from schizophrenia from #1 (worst) to #192 (best).

    The United States ranked #181.
    The United Kingdom was #185.
    Australia was #192
    Monaco is 1 of only 2 European Countries which has higher rates of cannabis use than the U.S. Monaco was #190.
    Canada was #177.
    Portugal was #174
    Holland was #173
    The other European Country that has higher rates of cannabis use than the US is France. France was #164

    On the other end of the spectrum at least 3 of the first 7 still executes cannabis law violators.

    Indonesia ranked #1
    Thailand was #3
    Malaysia was #4
    Singapore was #7

    I really do believe that if someone wants to be a professional confidence artists that he shouldn’t regurgitate hogwash that can be discredited with just a few clicks of the mouse.

    Oh, please don’t think that I missed the fact that the headline misrepresented the study’s inane claims.

  7. DdC says:

    This door should be standard to prevent such cop nonsense.
    https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=899755960050647

  8. Harrbear says:

    He could have played up the link with drug prohibition more in my opinion, but yes it was a great segment.

  9. Tony Aroma says:

    Daily Show did a bit last night about how there is no national data base of police killings. They couldn’t find the total number of people killed by police in the US. Apparently, police departments are supposed to report those numbers to the DOJ, but are not actually required to, so none do. Why is it not surprising that the government doesn’t want those numbers to get out?

    Daily Show Oct 7

    It’s at 7:50 (if you can make it past the mandatory commercials).

    • Duncan2003 says:

      .
      .

      How about we turn this one into a dictionary picture worthy example of irony?

      There is no national data base of police killings.”

      There is a national database of cannabis DNA. A CODIS for cannabis as they say down at the crime lab.
      ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-
      What you think I made that up? Well I don’t blame you a bit. Sometimes I wonder if I did do that because it sounds so darn stew-pid. Never drop acid around a prohibitionist. That combination just might make your brain implode.

      Grass Roots
      06/20/2013
      by Douglas Page

      New marijuana DNA database declares grass warfare.

      A national marijuana DNA databank has been established by a university researcher that will give law enforcement the ability to track where the drug originated when arrests are made and contraband dope seized.

      The DNA mapping system, developed at the University of New Haven, allows law enforcement for the first time not only to track where marijuana came from, but also to possibly link it to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, growers in Canada, or domestic distribution gangs, perhaps to connect the dots and make a case for conspiracy.

      The system can trace the marijuana from a single bud or seed back to its source, as long as there are matching samples. Matching DNA to plants grown on public lands in California, for example, could demonstrate that the crop was planted by a specific drug operation. So, if one person has a suitcase of marijuana and another person has bags of it, police can determine that it came from the same crop.
      /snip/

  10. allan says:

    How cops take millions from motorists not charged with crimes!
    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5b4_1412867958

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