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62 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
62 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
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Police Forces Keep the Take
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The ``loot'' that's coming back to police forces all over the nation has
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redefined law-enforcement success. It now has a dollar sign in front of
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it.
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For nearly eighteen months, undercover Arizona State Troopers worked as
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drug couriers driving nearly 13 tons of marijuana from the Mexican
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border to stash houses around Tucson. They hoped to catch the Mexican
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suppliers and distributors on the American side before the dope got on
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the streets. // But they overestimated their ability to control the
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distribution. Almost every ounce was sold the minute they dropped it at
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the houses. // Even though the troopers were responsible for tons of
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drugs getting loose in Tucson, the man who supervised the setup still
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believes it was worthwhile. It was ``a success from a cost-benefit
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standpoint,'' says former assistant attorney-general John Davis. His
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reasoning: It netted 20 arrests and at least $3 million for the state
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forfeiture fund.
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``That kind of thinking is what frightens me,'' says Steve Sherick, a
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Tucson attorney. ``The government's thirst for dollars is overcoming any
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long-range view of what it is supposed to be doing, which is fighting
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crime.'' // George Terwilliger III, associate deputy attorney general in
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charge of the U.S. Justice Department's program emphasizes that
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forfeiture does fight crime, and ``we're not at all apologetic about the
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fact that we do benefit (financially) from it.'' // In fact, Terwilliger
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wrote about how the forfeiture program financially benefits police
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departments in the 1991 Police Buyer's Guide of Police Chief Magazine.
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Between 1986 and 1990, the U.S. Justice Department generated $1.5
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billion from forfeiture and estimates that it will take in $500 million
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this year, five times the amount it collected in 1986. // District
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attorney's offices throughout Pennsylvania handled $4.5 million in
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forfeitures last year; Allegheny County (ED: Pgh is in Allegheny County)
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$218,000, and the city of Pittsburgh, $191,000 -- up from $9,000 four
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years ago. // Forfeiture pads the smallest towns coffers. In Lexana,
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Kan, a Kansas City suburb of 29,000, ``we've got about $250,000 moving
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in court right now,'' says narcotic detective Don Crohn. // Despite the
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huge amounts flowing to police departments, there are few public
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accounting procedures. Police who get a cut of the federal forfeiture
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funds must sign a form saying merely they will use it for ``law
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enforcement purposes.'' // To Philadelphia police that meant new air
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conditioning. In Warren County, N.J., it meant use of a forfeited yellow
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Corvette for the chief assistant prosecutor. //
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{At this point in the article there is a picture of three people in
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an empty apartment, with the following caption:
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Judy Mulford, 31, and her 13-year old twins, Chris, left, and
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Jason, are down to essentials in their Lake Park, Fla., home,
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which the government took in 1989 after claiming her husband,
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Joseph, stored cocaine there. Neither parent has been
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criminally charged, but in April a forfeiture jury said Mrs.
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Mulford must forfeit the house she bought herself with an
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insurance settlement. The Mulfords have divorced, and she has
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sold most of her belongings to cover legal bills. She's asked
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for a new trial and lives in the near-empty house pending a
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decision. }
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--- Renegade v6-27 Beta
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* Origin: Shark's Mouth 313-658-1110 750 MEGS Dual Amiga/IBM (23:313/108)
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