Interesting Links for 12-11-2014

[andrewducker]

• Marijuana's long-term effects on the brain demonstrated
  (tags: marijuana mri neuroscience )
• EU court ruling backs curbs on 'benefit tourism'
  (tags: Europe welfare )
• New party Left Unity to hold first annual conference
  (tags: politics UK )
• Calvin Klein Never Called That Model ‘Plus-Sized’ - Twitter Did
  (tags: fashion weight women Twitter )
• How to

Comments

[bart_calendar]

Forfeiture has simply become legal theft. And criminals have adapted somewhat.

Years ago I dated a girl whose dad was in the mob. I thought it was really weird the first time I picked her up for a date at her family's house. From the clothes she wore she clearly was from a wealthy family - but the house looked like shit on the outside.

Inside however it was fucking beautiful with a hot tub, huge television, very expensive furniture, etc..

What they were doing was simply making it look like they had nothing worth the police going after, which was why their cars looked like boring pieces of shit and their home looked shabby on the outside.

This is also why they gave their kids huge wads of cash at Chrismas instead of presents - so there would not be any credit card records of big ticket purchases.

[andrewducker]

Yeah. I can understand fining people for the proceeds of the crimes they've committed.

But that should happen as part of the legal process _after they've been found guilty_!

[bart_calendar]

yep.

[cartesiandaemon]

And -- I previously thought this went without saying -- should be confined to "profits of crime", or at least, "tools which have no possible non-illegal purpose". Not "the house of anyone who commits a crime" :(

[a_pawson]

The law was changed a few years ago in the UK to allow for seizure of assets which were acquired as a result of crime. Following a conviction for a major crime, the onus is on the guilty party to prove they acquired any major assets by legitimate means or else they can be seized. This is only applied to major (very profitable) crimes and seems reasonable to me. It means fraudsters or drug dealers who get caught won't have their collection of sports cars and a mansion to live in after their release.

Where I am less happy is that assets can also be seized without a criminal conviction. Again the onus is on the individual to prove that they acquired the assets legitimately. This requires a court order, but only from a civil court.

[fanf]

Ah, but in the US they can find objects guilty so they can seize them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._$124,700_in_U.S._Currency