civil forfeiture, the boringest sounding interesting thing

       "Civil forfeiture in the United States, sometimes called civil judicial forfeiture, is a controversial legal process in which law enforcement officers take assets from persons suspected of involvement with crime or illegal activity without necessarily charging the owners with wrongdoing. While civil procedure, as opposed to criminal procedure, generally involves a dispute between two private citizens, civil forfeiture involves a dispute between law enforcement and property such as a gold crucifix, a pile of cash, a house or a boat, such that the thing is suspected of being involved in a crime. To get back the seized property, owners must prove it was not involved in criminal activity."(wikipedia) 
       Civil forfeiture is cra cra, in 42 states the police are allowed to keep all the money seized in a forfeiture seizer, and what they spend this money on is ludicrous, like and these are all true, a $5 million helicopter for Los Angeles police, a mobile command bus worth more than $1 million in Prince George’s County, an armored personnel carrier costing $227,000 in Douglasville, a $637 coffee maker for the Randall County Sheriff’s Department in Amarillo, Texas, but my 2 favorite things police purchased with the "pennies from heaven" are; in Montgomery County, Texas, the police purchased a margarita machine for office parties, and another department in Worcester, Massachusetts, purchased a Zamboni ice resurfacing machine!! This is the real reason they ask if "you are traveling with large amounts of money" because they need margarita machines and zambonis.

     They will overcome any language barrier to ask for your money, even if it means they are just rambling in barely passable spanish. These cops will stop at nothing to shake you down for all your skrilla.

       if you're looking for more information and a few laughs check out john Oliver's bit on this