How "policing for profit" undermines your rights | Dick M. Carpenter II

TED Talks Daily

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2020

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many countries have an active, centuries-old law that allows government agencies to take your things -- your house, your car, your business -- without ever convicting you of a crime. Law researcher Dick M. Carpenter II exposes how this practice of civil forfeiture threatens your rights and creates a huge monetary incentive for law enforcement to pocket your possessions -- and he lays out a path to end "policing for profit" once and for all.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's TED Talks Daily, and I'm Elise Hu. Today's talk is about a quirk in the law in which,
0:09.5	get this, the government can convict an inanimate object of a crime. You heard that right.
0:15.9	And this scheme has really problematic results. Legal researcher Dick M. Carpenter
0:20.9	the second takes this topic that I never thought about before
0:23.8	and makes it outrageous an eye-opening.
0:26.5	He delivered it at TEDx Mile High in 2019.
0:32.0	Picture yourself driving down the road tomorrow,
0:35.5	heading somewhere to buy an item you found on Craigslist.
0:40.2	Perhaps a nice mountain bike for $3,000.
0:44.4	At that price, it's probably one of those bikes with a little electric motor on it.
0:49.1	Maybe some streamers from the handlebars.
0:53.1	The seller has declared this a cash-only deal, so you have in the console of your car $3,000.
1:00.8	Suddenly, you are pulled over.
1:04.5	During the stop, the officer asks, do you have any drugs, weapons, or large amounts of
1:10.6	cash in your car?
1:13.4	You truthfully answer, yes, not to the drugs or to the weapons, but to the cash.
1:18.8	In the blink of an eye, you are ordered out of your car.
1:23.3	The officer searches it and finds your cash.
1:32.5	On the spot, he seizes it, and he says he suspects it's part of a drug crime.
1:39.2	A few days later, the local district attorney files paperwork to keep your money permanently.
1:45.5	And all of this happens without you ever being charged or convicted of any crime.
1:50.5	Now, you might be saying, this would never happen in the United States.
	...

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