Graft
How is this different to protection money? or your standard 3rd world countries traffic police after (pick a holiday) money?
Oooooklahoma! Where the cops can stop and empty your bank cards – on just a hunch
Police in Oklahoma are deploying an electronic scanner that can drain currency from prepaid credit cards seized at the roadside using civil asset forfeiture laws. The Electronic Recovery and Access to Data (ERAD) handheld scanner was developed at the request of the Department of Homeland Security for use by US border guards. …
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Friday 10th June 2016 13:48 GMT Kumar2012
Re: Graft
@AC 'wrong skin colour'... Hmm why is it only ONE skin colour cries about being shot by the police all the time (while in fact more of them die at each other's hands than cops could ever manage) and it also happens to be the ONE skin colour also disproportionately responsible for crime... meanwhile white, brown, yellow and various and sundry shades in between don't get shot up by police... of course must be racism /sarc
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Thursday 9th June 2016 06:38 GMT Anonymous Coward
@Sgt_Oddball - bullshit it is too graft
You think it doesn't end up in the cops' pockets? How do you think they pay for all that overtime they accrue? Or their fat pensions when retiring at the tender age of 50? The only thing it doesn't pay for is when a cop is successfully sued for killing an unarmed citizen or using excessive force - then the municipal budget is forced to pick up the tab. It should come straight out of the cop's pension.
This is a legalized theft, and is the worst abuse the pointless war on drugs. This why the cops use so many scare tactics about drugs, because they know if drugs get decriminalized the gravy train is over.
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Thursday 9th June 2016 08:27 GMT streaky
Re: Graft
doesn't end up in the traffic cops back pocket but their paymasters instead since its not a paper handshake but a plastic shake down
Until they start paying bonuses based off assets seized which by my understanding is already going on in various states - and by the smell of what's discussed in the article one might assume is already happening there.
Also not for nothing but generally when you're paying protection money the guys threatening you aren't actually the ones receiving the money in the end anyway, they just work for the guy who does. See why somebody might get confused?
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Wednesday 8th June 2016 23:48 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Graft
> or your standard 3rd world countries traffic police after (pick a holiday) money?
Bingo. Oklahoma is 3rd world (think Kansas South or Indiana Southwest). The only reason civilized people wind up there is because frigging I-40 goes through it. Children of the corn if you dare get off it though. All the more reason to flyover (a picture of the Oklahoma flag is next to the description for flyover country in the dictionary) it if you can.
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Thursday 9th June 2016 17:47 GMT RachelM
Re: Graft
I'm going to guess after your comments on Oklahoma that you have never actually been to Oklahoma. I live in Oklahoma City and while I will admit there are small towns here, there are small towns everywhere. I have traveled on I-40 to California many times on vacation and have gone to many other states using other highways and such as I don't like to fly. I prefer to drive to see all the wonderful scenery. I can tell you, Mr. Frequent Flyer a.k.a Anonymous Coward, that for one, you are missing out. This country has some beautiful landscape and all sorts of things to see and experience when you actually get in your car and drive. For two, there are many celebrities, both musicians and very famous actors, that are from Oklahoma. James Garner, for example, is from Oklahoma. Brad Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. For three, I have seen many other cities in many other states that look exactly like Oklahoma City. The residents there are also very much like the residents in Oklahoma City. Are we a little more laid back than some? Yes. But comparing us to the Children of the Corn movie tells me that whatever state you are from must be the same state and area where they filmed Deliverance and apparently not much has changed since then. But please, continue to fly overhead as pompous uneducated jerks are not welcome in our state.
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Friday 10th June 2016 01:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Graft
Aubrey McClendon is all you need to know about the douche nozzle essence of Oklahoma. The Tulsa whites slaughtering blacks riots in the 1920s and that OU frat just singing those Oklahoma songs are just a century of icing on the racist shit cake. For the record there are some beautiful states driving down I-40 but not your speed trap redneck asspit.
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Friday 10th June 2016 02:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Graft
And I don't mean about the fracking or oil (the few good things along with waste water storage Oklahoma is good for, better earthquakes for you than me), more the entitlement and the outright fraud he committed and then took the coward way out when having to finally face the music.
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Friday 10th June 2016 12:34 GMT Snark
Re: Graft @RachelM
I'm in the UK but due to friends/family I tend to visit Oklahoma about twice a year. It is indeed a beautiful place and one of incredible contrasts and full of some of the most unexpected places.
Will Rogers Airport has to be one of the friendliest places I've thrown from (I shudder going back into Heathrow). The Okies have always been a welcoming bunch even if they can't understand a word I'm saying. OKC itself is a bit sprawling if you are used to more compact towns like over here, and you need to be there awhile to get an idea of its character rather than just think "another strip mall, another road". Midtown has had some awesome changes to it and a great vibe going on as well as a real community feeling amongst people. Every visit we find new places with great food and great atmosphere and something "unique" amongst them, you just have to look a little amongst all the chains.
It is indeed a great state and it and its people aren't deserving of being the butt of so many jokes. It's government on the other hand... This sort of move is so in character with the way the state is being run into the ground. The budget cuts are killing all the services, especially the education system. I wonder if the $1.3bn state budget deficit has anything to do with being so keen on seizing goods/money.... nah, couldn't be, could it?
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Friday 10th June 2016 14:24 GMT Michael Wojcik
Re: Graft
I'm going to guess after your comments on Oklahoma that you have never actually been to Oklahoma.
Indeed. Typical small-minded bigotry on the part of that poster, and others who posted similar remarks.
There are certainly many things wrong with Oklahoma, just as there are with every region. (I'd like to see the CNO quit their ethnic cleansing and clean up the nest of good ol' boys that's ruining NSU, for example.) But I've spent a fair bit of time in the state; I have friends there, and I've driven across it a number of times going to and from New Mexico. I've taken I-40 and I've gone through the panhandle. Overall it's been a good experience, and I can't say anyone in Oklahoma has ever been as rude to me as some of the folks I've met in New York and Los Angeles.
I grew up in the urban northeast US, and I've also lived for extended periods in the midwest and the plains, and spent time on the west coast and various states in the south. Anyone who dismisses any part of the country out of hand is just an ignorant jackass.
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Thursday 9th June 2016 20:20 GMT skeptical i
Re: Graft
Hi, A.C.: I haven't spent any time in Oklahoma, but did have the pleasure of driving through it (following the old U.S. Route 66 as much as possible) in the early 1990s and while many of OK's politicians have ... interesting ... opinions, there is a lot of lovely scenery and pockets of progressivism. It's sad they get overshadowed by the elected bloviators -- and now this official malfeasance -- but this is true of many other U.S. states.
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Thursday 9th June 2016 13:51 GMT Triggerfish
Re: Graft
2) You actually get the protection from further harassment that you paid for.
I was once given what can only be described as a receipt to make sure that happened. It was a somewhat confusing shakedown, which included a discussion on football once they knew I was from England.
Some bars I have been in one country had a flag they raised to show they had paid. Different organisations used to come round and offer protection trying to outbid each other on what they could provide as extras, like supplying weed, and getting a blind eye turned by the police (the police were also bidding for the action) like salesmen quoting. Once you went with a vendor the rest left you alone.
Basically it seems criminal gangs in corrupt countries, might be more honest brokers.
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Friday 10th June 2016 05:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Graft
Yep Euros basically if you ever visit the US stay out of the southeast and the midwest states of Kansas, MIssouri, Oklahoma, and Indiana and you will be fine. Texas has its own pitfalls but unlike the states I named earlier there is actually things worth seeing there. Utah is another one with lots of pitfalls (including the worst highway patrol in the country) but man some real beauty there as well (Moab, Bryce Canyon, Park City skiing plus on way to Vegas lol).
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Wednesday 8th June 2016 20:11 GMT Sgt_Oddball
wait....... what?
So they've developed what is basically a card skimmer for cops that takes money and not even places it in escrow awaiting a formal charge so that others can benefit from the cash taken? Even if all the funds were to be restored would the police refund bank charges and the interest that would have been accrued or owed?
How did that ever get made legal? Why isn't there more oversight on something that is pretty much guaranteed to be abused on some level or another?
Seriously can somebody please explain how removing funds is better than just freezing accounts?
And that's before you look at overdrafts and the like.
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Wednesday 8th June 2016 20:28 GMT Dadmin
Re: wait....... what?
Here's a bit of American trivia for you; the East and West coasts of the US you will find a normal distribution of stupid/smart people, except Florida where we have 100% stupid. In between? It's all bible-eaters and gun-nuts. 99% of them. It is known.
So, Oklahoma? It's like a crap version of Nebraska, which in itself is a shithole filled with idiots too stupid to move where tornados don't naturally occur every 15 minutes. It is known.
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Wednesday 8th June 2016 21:30 GMT Eddy Ito
Re: wait....... what?
Nah, it doesn't make any difference where it is. All cops grab money with New York, California and Texas being the worst offenders. Even in Liz Warren's home they grab anything or everything. This is just an example of Oklahoma trying to find new ways to catch up.
Heck LAPD and the LA Sheriff took in more than all of Oklahoma.
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Thursday 9th June 2016 05:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: LAPD and the LA Sheriff took in more than all of Oklahoma
Yes, well, all of Oklahoma has a population of 3.9 million. Los Angeles county is over 10 million people. NY, CA, and TX might be the word offenders but they're also by far the most populous states. Please do adjust for population in your figures.
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Thursday 9th June 2016 14:59 GMT Eddy Ito
Re: LAPD and the LA Sheriff took in more than all of Oklahoma
You got me AC. Accounting for population NY falls all the way to 7th picking $12.20 out of the pocket of every single New Yorker. CA comes right behind in 8th at $11.00. FYI, taking the top slot is Nebraska at $25.00 a head. Since they were mentioned Texas is 20th at $8.35 and Oklahoma is 13th at $9.72
Of course when populations are small one single big score may easily push a state near the top which is the only way I can figure Vermont being 11th and most of the other small states (pop. < 2 million) being at the other end of the scale with the notable exception of the top seed.
Of the bigger states (pop. > 6.5 million) only Washington and Virginia stand out taking a tiny $0.50 and $1.96 respectively. Of the top ten largest states, four make the top ten takers per capita and four manage to get out of the top 50%.
Since I did include D.C. and it throws the state rank out of kilter by one, D.C. came in at number 12 managing to extract $10.45 from the purses of the capital residents. I hope that covers it well enough for you AC. I'd be happy to share my spreadsheet but I've no idea where to send it so you'll just have to make one of your own.
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Thursday 9th June 2016 15:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
@Eddy Ito Re: LAPD and the LA Sheriff took in more than all of Oklahoma
First class response, Sir ! This is why I read El Reg forums / fora :)
But this whole gloomy topic reminds me of Bruce Sterling's "Distraction" ... e.g. where the USAF set up "bake sales" where you'd better buy the damn cake ...
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Wednesday 8th June 2016 22:06 GMT Gray
Re: wait....... what?
So, Oklahoma? It's like a crap version of Nebraska, which in itself is a shithole filled with idiots too stupid to move where tornados don't naturally occur every 15 minutes. It is known.
Oklahoma: where tornadoes sometimes devastate a school, killing kids, but the state legislature claims it would bankrupt the state budget to include a tornado shelter in school buildings. Obviously, the only kids who die are those who (or their parents) did something to piss off God.
As for the cops, this has been going on for a long time. One national network did a filmed piece on a Texas sheriff and his deputies patrolling the freeway for luxury automobiles, typically a late-model Cadillac; then stopping and seizing the automobile under the "forfeiture" laws. Hidden camera footage put an end to that particular Sheriff trap, but it was only one in thousands of crooked scams conducted by US law enforcement. Give 'em an opportunity to lie, cheat, or steal, and some will do it.
About that 7.7% that the vendor gets; shouldn't that also include a 10% "finders fee" for the bent cop?
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Thursday 9th June 2016 14:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: America? (while we are stereotyping)
>Amerigo: did not put his own name on the map. He was such a respected cartographer that his name was used.
Well aware of that and never said he did.
>And why the gratuitous slur against Italian men?
Actually that one went out to most countries that are vast majority Catholic as well some others.
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Friday 10th June 2016 00:42 GMT Phil Koenig
Re: America?
Mexico also being the second nation in North America which refers to themselves as "United States" (..of Mexico), for almost as long as the USA. (47 years less, to be exact. Almost 200 years now.)
I gleefully attract many cross-eyed looks and grimaces by pointing-out such inconvenient facts and using terms like "Yanks" or "USians" when referring to US residents.
Apple Cart Upsetter in Chief
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Friday 10th June 2016 10:45 GMT Pat 4
Re: America?
When the US joins the rest of the modern world with proper health care, child care, affordable schools, stops shooting at itself and stops supporting orange, orangutans politicians, you can compare it to a great country like Canada.
In the meantime please don't compare yourself to us. It's insulting and makes us feel dirty.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
