Federal & Local Law Enforcement Agencies Try to Take Family Motel from Innocent Owners
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- Imagine you own a million-dollar piece of property free and clear, but then the federal government and local law enforcement agents announce that they are going to take it from you, not compensate you one dime, and then use the money they get from selling your land to pad their budgets-all this even though you have never so much as been accused of a crime, let alone convicted of one.
Learn more: www.ij.org/mass...
I am watching this 3 years late... please tell me the Motel owners won and civil forfeiture has been repealed.
Motel owners won, but civil forfeiture still has a long way to go before we kill it.
Update: the government failed to take the motel.
Good to hear.
I hope the motel cleans up their act because this was only a first attempt they'll try again in the future.
Let's be clear when I say clean-up their act I'm talkin about getting a mortgage, getting better tenants, having better records, and getting a better relationship with the political officials.
There oughta be a "Your reaction" selection that says "THIS IS EVIL!"
@BGM111474: "I did police work for years and dont believe in just taking something away from someone for monetary gain just because you can."
All due props to an honest cop who follows his oath and honors his shield.
I pray, sir, that the time never comes that you have to stand armed against those who would claim to be your colleague but are not fit to wipe the windshield of your squad car.
Yes they can do this to a United states citizen, but can they do this to an American, is this" public policy"? This not lawful only legal.
How can someone like me, living in a different state, help the Caswell family fight this injustice?
From what was posted earlier it seems as if the case has been closed -- they got to keep their property, nevertheless IJ is fighting hard for a number of people in similar situations so a donation to IJ in the name of or on behalf of the clauswells would probably be appreciated by both
Allowing any agency to pad their budgets on their own like this should be criminal. These bastards stole my fathers 6 businesses, his home, his family farm (that had been in the family for over 200 years and was a reward for things in the revolutionary war) even his cars, trucks, seized all bank accounts and safety deposit boxes, ruined his life and the lives of my mother myself and siblings they took everything...and he never committed one crime or was convicted of anything. Estimated 9.8 mill
Rev. Lester King, a property owner and citizen of the Batesville, Ms.The City of Batesville, Mississippi and local law enforcement agents announce a few years ago that they were going to take The Property from Rev. Lester King, Without compensating him for one dime, and then use the money they get from selling your land to pad their budgets Rev. Lester King is now detained without charges in the Panola County Jail awaiting court dated for 2/21 & 2/24 at the Justic court center, Sardis, Ms.
It's ridiculous that they could loose the property WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING WRONG!
There shouldn't be ANY kind of asset forfeiture! It has been abused from day one!
Spread the word, folks: If the government refuses to be bound by the Constitution, if the law doesn't apply to the State, the people are no longer bound by the law, either.
If the courts do not rule firmly against Tewksville and the Feds, tar, feathers, and even rifles are on the table.
Injustice like this must be stopped...
this is THEFT!!! it goes way beyond just being wrong! it's completely insane, morally and ethically!!
A flat-out disgrace.
@AceOfFuries: "worst spots in the town"
Absolutely irrelevant. Warrants, arrests, trials, convictions. That is the only way to do this.
My prediction: if the Cas is forfeited, crime there will skyrocket, the place will rot, and the business will fail.
And even that's irrelevant. Due process is all that really matters, and civil forfeiture isn't that.
Yeah. and even being convicted of a crime unrelated to one's property is also no justification for out and out theft. Congrats cops. You've added thieves to your long list of crimes.
HOW and WHY is that a LAW?!! Who do I call, write or picket to make it stop forever?
WTF? This has to be one of the most outrageous things IJ has reported on.
This EVIL LAW is PISSING on the CONSTITUTION and PISSING on the GRAVES of our FOUNDING FATHERS,
outrageous ! it used to be like that during the World War II and after war during communist era in Poland.
@lockupchick: "I'd like to see how many calls for service were taken for this location"
So would I - as a member of the jury.
Short of that, I don't care if they run teen sex slaves out of every room every night. You get warrants based on reasonable suspicion, file charges, go to trial, do what the jury says.
And you do it to stop the crime, not to acquire the lucrative property.
Anything else is tyranny, as this certainly is.
I sincerely hope this is a mal-timed April Fools joke.
@OnlyEdandTheAlmost To clarify, the video states that the motel has averaged 3.125 arrests a year out of 6250 rooms registered each year. The 6250 rooms could and probably did have more than one guest in each.
Disgusting!
Civil Remedies Act in CANADA - basically the same thing!
So 1 out of every 2000 people that stayed there has committed a crime? I'm sure that every hotel in the country has unknowingly roomed criminals. Could any hotel property be seized? Or do we give the well-connected ones a pass?
I just saw this on Fox Business channel. It's a disgrace to everything our country stands for. It's a budget motel in a tiny town. The only reason the cops are trying to take it is because A) the mortgage is paid B) they get to keep a huge cut of the profit from selling the property C) they think they can get away with it under the guise of "crimes happened there" - uhm, duh. It's a motel. Crimes happen in every motel, hotel, holiday inn. This is disgusting.
Minnesota passed laws against this as well as local and/or state imminent domain powers. Minnesota is screwed up, but they got a few things right. Sobriety and "safety" check points are deemed unconstitutional.
i would think motel rentals would be unmoderated unless restricted by state laws. this law is pure Gestapo tactics in Germany they would take away your wealth just like this law dose.
@NYdogMom I believe they are implying that the arrests happened at the hotel, not they their guests had ever been arrested. Not that that makes this ok. We are talking about 63 arrests at that property out of 125,000 rooms rented and over a 20 year time period. The State is obviously looking for any excuse to be able to recupe their deficits.
I live about 2 miles from the Caswell. The fact that this has been known (as long as I can remember back to the late 70's, probably even longer) as THE place to go to do drugs, get a hooker, etc..then I believe it should be shut down and taken over. I think it's less to do with "making a profit" than it is to shut down the biggest trouble spot in town. Love how the family-type pics all seem to go back to the 50's or so, shows how long it's been since this was a family-friendly establishment,
The stats shown for the motel's nefarious customers need to be tweaked. They state 0.0005% of the customers have been arrested, then throw out the number 125,000 as the number of times the rooms have been rented. 125,000 x 0.0005% = 0.625 people. I think they meant to use either 0.05% or simply 0.0005, not 0.0005%.
Either way, 62 or so folks getting arrested over 20 years does not make that property a den of inequity.
AKA - this is BS and should not be legal. No confiscation without guilt
They will need to put a lien on their own property. The lien would have to be paid before the property can be stolen.
This is totally nuts. So let's review...If I own a hotel, I'm supposed to now to a background check on EVERY PERSON who wants to stay with my hotel just to make sure they have not committed a crime? huh? and what if the background check reveals NOTHING but...there were errors? this is nuts. What can we do? I am sick of this. The Pharmaceutical companies are in cohoots with the FDA and now this? Where are we living? sure is'nt the USA I grew up loving and serving in the armed forces. :(
Remember that this is the only way government can sustain itself. Take money and assets from people.
Tell your local elected official to make this stop. If he resists or fails, then do every legal thing you can to get the official out of office.
When you prevail, tell the incoming elected official he's now responsible...
I don't know how seizing this motel will fix the drug problem. Wouldn't the police simply resell the motel for profit? Wouldn't a new operator be stuck with the same problem?
Russ Caswell is going to be talking with Freedom Watch With Judge Napolitano tonight at 8 on Fox business channel. Regardless of your political view or view of FOX NEWS. This will be a good outlet to get the message out. So just tune in, even if its just for a little bit.
It's just an offer. Conditionally accept the offer on the condition that all proceeds go to the Caswell family trust, that Caswells set up forthwith, and that said sale and proceed is a value twice that of the market value. Just contract with them so that they get zero profit, and all the profit flows directly to whom it belongs. Case Closed.
I stand corrected. Regardless I do think civil forfeiture to be wrong. No confiscation without guilt.
@MomSarch so this is more appropriately described as an inability of the police to perform their duties, right? If the commission of a crime on private property means the property can be confiscated, what about a murder inside a house? this makes no sense to me.
@Yogdog69 Your figures are incorrect. The video states that .05% of all room registrations (not guests, but registrations--a registration could entail one or more people in a room) over a 20-year period have resulted in arrests. The total number of registered rooms over that period is reported as numbering 125,000; .05% of 125,000 is 62.5, or 3.125 arrests per registration per year. The percentage of guests arrested from the total number of guests registered must be even smaller.
A little math: 125,000 X 0.05% = about 63 crimes over a 20 year period. Three crimes a year does not exactly sound like a crime wave. I wonder how many of those crimes were minor things such as vandalism reported by the owner.
This really does sound like over-reaching by the authorities.
.05%, or .0005 of 125,000 is 62.5 arrests over 20 years, or 3.12 arrests per year.. just to save you the trouble of the math. There's a corrective annotation on the video if you don't have annotations turned on, that changes the video's original ".0005%" figure. And this is to say, just "arrests".. and not convictions, necessarily. Also, the video seems to suggest the owners would be left with "nothing" -- although they would still keep all their other assets like savings accrued, etc.
@Yogdog69, you're off by 2 orders of magnitude. 0.05% is 0.0005, or 65.5 arrests over the 20 years... just over 3 per year, in other words.
@RCWorks
We don't have a Constitution anymore. The people who know and care are outnumbered by the people who don't know and don't care, and don't know they don't know.
this is like a physical manifestation of SOPA/PIPA.
"gang of thieves writ large" -Murray Rothbard
125 000 people stayed here @ .05% were arrested = 625 people were arrested. That's a lot!
Criminals use dollar bills provided by the federal reserve to fund their crimes, can we take all the money from the federal reserve please.
Columbia university is doing this with spanish harlem in New York city, they're being sued right now, offcourse the case involves eminent domain not civil forfeiture. But in any case, they got the city to condemn entire spanish harlem even though there's nothing wrong with the buildings.
If I were the Caswell's and this didn't go in my favor and the Gov't was talking the property.... I would burn it to the ground!
Id find the cops responsible and burn down their home, when them in it, wipe out their whole dam family, kill off the bad seed.
Sad
Seems like the only way to secure your property is to put it underwater with a huge mortgage
I'd like to see how many calls for service were taken for this location... If they have knowingly continued to rent rooms that then lead to calls for service, (drugs, prostitution, etc.) and, they have been warned but failed to take action against the nuisances, they may have a problem. If this story is exactly as shown in the video, this would be considered excessive.
Lots of criminals visit government offices every day. Under this law - the government should lose its offices as soon as it can be shown that a baddie has visited. In fact, under this law - this wouldn't even be necessary. Citizen's arrest anyone?
How do these lawyers (the ones stealing the Caswell's land) sleep at night? Which scumbag cop first thought to commit this crime?
@stcorbett13 You seem to think this is about a place. Thats what local Police and the Gov want you to think. this is about your rights. So much so they list the property as the defendant in the court papers. Like everyone else on here they see right though the sheer cloth laying over the defendant listed in this case. Make no mistake this is the United States vs Russ Caswell and his rights. How would you feel if someone took all you worked for even though you did nothing wrong?
I question the fairness of this statute, but doing some quick math, .05% of 125,000 rentals over the course of 20 years, works out to roughly 312 arrests per year from the motel. Just under 6 arrests per week. Any other business with that sort of arrest record would probably be closed down in some manner...
Now the question I have is, how many of those arrests were called in by the Caswells themselves, for drunk and disorderly patrons etc.
This is EVIL
sick and sad.
Irregularities and inequities in America’s criminal justice system challenge our notions of fundamental fairness. Our nation’s citizens expect it to be reliable and fair. Enacting the National Criminal Justice Commission Act will take the long-overdue step of undertaking a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system, producing recommendations for changes in oversight, policies, practices, and laws.
United States Senator James Webb of Virginia
with 39 US senators signed on additionally
YOu need to ask those authorities if its really worth their life to pursue such activities?
Tell it to Suzanne Kelo.
@RCWorks We fought a war to liberate ourselves from a despot for just this sort of thing.
It just goes to show. If you own a motel don't call the police about activity, it'll bite you in the ass
The Psychopaths days are numbered Keep the light shining on these Criminals
Pickett outside courthouse Call local News
The IJ is fighting the good fight.
Not any old piece of paper, but the will of power holders is the foundation of the law. Stop crying over your long forgotten constitution Americans.
@AceOfFuries: "there might be more to this than the video let's you think"
Granted, but still irrelevant.
Nothing happening at that hotel is remotely on the evil scale of the civil forfeiture racket being perpetrated by the feds.
I agree the video is weakened by trying to make its case on the innocence of the owners.
However, in terms of criminal law, they are innocent. They've never been charged, and if there's any substance to the allegations, charges are certainly in order.
But no.
this is not the country I was born into. We have no morals and no sense of justice or personal rights or responsibilities. It's time to leave...But where to go? Costa Rica? I will wait till November 2012..maybe things will change, but I doubt it.
@ momsachs: actually by mass laws this is illegal.
@redmends: false rumors are false rumors. You have proof of said people in your neighborhood? Breakins, vehicle breaks etc are all relatively low in this area of town.
@50srefugee Like I said it doesn't make it right by any means. In fact I'm completely against the idea. My point was simply there might be more to this than the video let's you think. I personally know two people that have died there due to drugs that they bought while at The Cas, so I was just implying that there **MIGHT** be criminal charges here.
Al Capone ONLY wanted 10% of your earnings. The Government on the other hand make Capone and Madoff look like Rank Amateurs.
LESS GOVERNMENT!
I live in Boston, about 40 minutes away from this hotel, and I even I know that this place is known for it's drugs and hookers.
Drive around back, beep once for drugs, twice for hookers... or something like that.
Its hard to feel bad for the owners since they must know this is going on, but its sad that the police are trying to take away the property instead of arresting the perpetrators.
Civil forfeiture is unconstitutional. Legalize all drugs federally change my mind.
@r0cketplumber And, given local news (Tewksbury Patch) on 15 Feb, at least 4 of those 62 arrests were because of the hotel clerk's calling police.
I have had a similar situation happen to me. They have taken me for $30K and I have never committed any crime. Other than a speeding ticket 10 years ago. Your situation is even worse. Anything I can do to help please let me know. John
@Yogdog69 Check your math. .05% of 125000 is actually .0005 x 125,000 divided by 20 years which is actually 3.125 arrests per year. I seriously doubt that is any higher than any other low-rent motel in any town in this country, not to mention it can't even compete with the arrests made during any week in March in a place like Daytona Beach. This looks an awful lot like thinly veiled eminent domain.
Therein lies your problem...this IS due process of law. There is a law here in Massachusetts stating that this is the consequence. People lose their cars and other property for things like this, as well as for owing child support and other things... The police don't just take the property..they do go through due process. If they don't like the laws here, they can go live somewhere else. Most of us here agree with the laws...
@redmend, if by law you mean contract, then that's what's going on. If you mean law, as a rule passed, and upheld by a legislature, it's not, because the constitution for bids the passing of any laws that run contrary to the unalienable rights of the people.
Reguardless, YOU could send the Caswell's notice that their business, and property is causing YOU harm and that YOU would like compensation. TALK TO YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND SEEK REMEDY.
Good grief! What freedom hating president signed THIS into law?
Civil forfeiture? Who gets these ridiculous laws passed?
Lol these are the laws used for targeting particular communities for decades, nowadays it is bitting back everyone.
@bmadccp You have it right, but resistance has been bred out of Americans.
The law breaking the law!! SAD!!
@OnlyEdandTheAlmost (In other words, "3.125 arrests per registration per year" should have read 3.125 arrests per year out of 6250 rooms registered. We regret the error and blame insufficient caffeine consumption, liberals and The Government.)
see Lecture of MI6 AGENT Dr John Coleman, CLUB OF ROME (Committee of 300)
Easy mistake to make because it only flashed on the screen for a second. Anyway, this practice is outrageous and seems tailor-made for eminent domain abuse. What are the Caswells to do? this is obviously a business with a few sketchy clients but short of installing surveillance all over the place, and screening their customers (probably creating civil liability), I don't know how they can stay under the radar. Sounds like someone is looking to put their property to "better" use. It stinks!
@pmonroe2 I stand corrected. Regardless I do think civil forfeiture to be wrong. No confiscation without guilt. I did get it wrong by 2 orders of magnitude...which does make it obscene...err, more obscene. ;-)
@vitigator I stand corrected. Regardless I do think civil forfeiture to be wrong. No confiscation without guilt. I did get it wrong by 2 orders of magnitude...which does make it obscene...err, more obscene. ;-)
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say most of y'all don't live here in Tewksbury...those arrest numbers seem GROSSLY incorrect and "The Cas" is actually one of the worst spots in the town. Now I'm not saying what they are doing is correct BUT "The Cas" is certainly not the innocent place this video makes it out to be.
Good thing we got those guns
Civil war is coming.. SOON ... _ _ _ ...
Sorry, dude, misunderstood.....that's what YOU mean by due process, but that's not what due process actually means....
@gawalla Thing is, the pics in this video don't do the justice of what it really looks like. These pics are from the 50's... there is no pool now and it looks like a crack house. It IS a crack house. This little video is meant to make you feel sorry for them, but it is not accurately portraying what this place really is. If they were so concerned with this as their retirement fund, they would sell the place and be done with it, problem solved... They are already past retirement age.
The words used here are much to soft. This is robbery, plain and simple, and all persons responsible need to go to prison.
Tyrants need no excuse!
This sounds like a case for Saul Goodman
New Caswell FB supporters page
Its under "friends of Russ Caswell"
Un-effing-believable!
@penguinistas Yeah, he really screwed us in 1986 when Reagan's administration lobbied to expand the use of civil asset forfeiture...
if crime on land is the way the take it , sorry for wallmart