General Discussion

Octafish

(55,745 posts) Sat Jan 31, 2015, 01:18 PM Jan 2015

Drug Enforcement Administration tracks movements of millions of Americans...(to SEIZE ASSETS)

By E.P. Bannon
World Socialist Web Site, 31 January 2015

New information reveals that the US Drug Enforcement Administration has been tracking the movements of millions of Americans through a national license plate reader program. The American Civil Liberties Union made this information public January 26 after obtaining DEA documents through the Freedom of Information Act.

The DEA operates a National License Plate Recognition program, started in 2008, that connects its license plate readers with other law enforcement agencies. Under the guise of the “war on drugs,” the federal government is moving quickly to create a centralized database of all drivers’ movements throughout the country.

In an email exchange, a DEA official explains the license plate database is designed to aid searches and seizures by police. “We want to insure we can collect and manage all the data and (Information Technology) responsibilities that will come with the work to insure the program meets its goals,” the official states, “of which asset forfeiture is primary.”

“Asset forfeiture” is a form of search and seizure in which law enforcement officers can take money or other property by claiming it is associated with illegal activity without ever having to pursue criminal charges. Federal and state agents seize millions of dollars from civilians every year during routine traffic stops. In many instances, the money seized has been used to pay salaries, buy advanced equipment, or for personal benefit. In one particularly egregious case, an NYPD officer seized $1,300 in cash from a Brooklyn construction worker following a stop-and-frisk and then maced him.

Last month, the Supreme Court broadened permissible searches and seizures to include actions taken by police officers when they make a false interpretation of the law, in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/01/31/dea-j31.html

Gee. Tracking where everybody goes is just a bonus.

5 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Drug Enforcement Administration tracks movements of millions of Americans...(to SEIZE ASSETS) (Original Post) Octafish Jan 2015 OP

This is why I said that no doubt Putin is a thieving thug - but here in the US, we have just djean111 Jan 2015 #1

Yeah, when the citizens complain about illegal govt activity our govt simply legalizes it. cui bono Jan 2015 #2

KGB wishes they had ECHELON, let alone whatever NSA uses these days. Octafish Jan 2015 #5

How is this not organized crime? McCamy Taylor Jan 2015 #3

Scary thought: is this their way of making us keep a paper trail? McCamy Taylor Jan 2015 #4

djean111

(14,255 posts)

1. This is why I said that no doubt Putin is a thieving thug - but here in the US, we have just

Reply to Octafish (Original post)

Sat Jan 31, 2015, 02:14 PM

Jan 2015

legalized thuggery and theft.

cui bono

(19,926 posts)

2. Yeah, when the citizens complain about illegal govt activity our govt simply legalizes it.

Reply to djean111 (Reply #1)

Sat Jan 31, 2015, 02:59 PM

Jan 2015

Just like the spying on American citizens. It was illegal when BushCo did it so they "legalized" it. Doesn't make it constitutional, no matter what SCOTUS says.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)

5. KGB wishes they had ECHELON, let alone whatever NSA uses these days.

Reply to djean111 (Reply #1)

Sat Jan 31, 2015, 03:44 PM

Jan 2015

Exclusive: U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans

WASHINGTON | Mon Aug 5, 2013 3:25pm EDT
By John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

"I have never heard of anything like this at all," said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor who served as a federal judge from 1994 to 2011. Gertner and other legal experts said the program sounds more troubling than recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been collecting domestic phone records. The NSA effort is geared toward stopping terrorists; the DEA program targets common criminals, primarily drug dealers.

"It is one thing to create special rules for national security," Gertner said. "Ordinary crime is entirely different. It sounds like they are phonying up investigations."

CONTINUED...

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE97409R20130805?irpc=932

The profits in just the thievery alone are staggering.

McCamy Taylor

(19,240 posts)

3. How is this not organized crime?

Reply to Octafish (Original post)

Sat Jan 31, 2015, 03:09 PM

Jan 2015

McCamy Taylor

(19,240 posts)

4. Scary thought: is this their way of making us keep a paper trail?

Reply to Octafish (Original post)

Sat Jan 31, 2015, 03:12 PM

Jan 2015

I.e. are they criminalizing cash so that we have to use cards--which means that advertisers and banks and the government will know exactly how we spend our money, making it easier for them to direct ad target us? It is so expensive to get money from a teller machine that most folks take out a lot at a time. But if you do that, the police can seize it. Making it cheaper and easier to use a card.

Reply to this discussion