A thousand cuts.
January 20, 2008 – 7:38 pm1. Slogan of the newest graduating class of the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy: “Don’t suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it.” Well, at least they’re honest about it now.
2. You know the TSA is doing its job, not because it’s finding bombs sneaked into luggage, but because it’s taking a lot of your shit:
“Even without clear evidence of the accuracy of testing, the Transportation Security Administration defended its measures by reporting that more than 13 million prohibited items were intercepted in one year,” the researchers added. “Most of these illegal items were lighters.”
3. Your right to self-defense ends where keeping contraband in your home begins.
4. But that’s not even the worst that could happen:
Two robbers who broke into Luther Ricks Sr.’s house this summer may have not gotten his life savings he had in a safe, but after the FBI confiscated it he may not get it back.
Ricks has tried to get an attorney to fight for the $402,767 but he has no money. Lima Police Department officers originally took the money from his house but the FBI stepped in and took it from the Police Department. Ricks has not been charged with a crime and was cleared in a fatal shooting of one of the robbers but still the FBI has refused to return the money, he said. . . .
Police originally took the money after finding marijuana inside Ricks’ home, which Ricks said he had to help manage pain.
Ricks wasn’t even charged with pot possession. Just finding the stuff is enough for asset forfeiture laws to kick in. No trial, no due process—the government will take your property and then make you prove it’s yours and that you earned it honestly.
This is our country now, bleeding to death by a thousand cuts.