Post Alo47HnbO4KjV8L1aC by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
(DIR) More posts by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
(DIR) Post #Alo47HnbO4KjV8L1aC by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-09-08T02:45:53Z
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Big props to Jeremy Saulnier who wrote and directed Rebel Ridge. Recommend.The film covers so much of what is wrong with US policing, in an action packed drama movie. It also covers the evil and racism in the system vs the individual. I don't think a cop calls a Black person the N-Word once in the whole movie.*Civil asset forfeiture*Cash bail and prison violence*Why Black folk don't give statements*The power of sheriffs in small towns*Violence of the war on drugshttps://youtu.be/gF3gZicntIw?si=rn_1NYGSB1zUS8Im
(DIR) Post #Alo47Ilrm0XUW2X9W4 by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-09-08T02:51:57Z
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I love that millions of people will watch the movie, and go:👩🏼Wait, the civil asset part is made up right?🧔🏿♂️No, that's totally real.👩🏼OK, but they can't just like, pull you over and take your money if you can prove that it's yours, right?🧔🏿♂️No, they can.👩🏼OK, but like... that doesn't happen very often in real life right?🧔🏿♂️No, it happens a lot. Cops steal more through civil asset forfeiture than all other forms of burglary combined. Mostly from poor Black folk, as depicted in the movie.2/N
(DIR) Post #Alo47JfWR53hIeZbGa by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-09-08T03:05:04Z
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Forget Hollywood drama. Henry and Minh Chen are business owners in real life. They own a jewelry store. They made a legitimate purchase via cash. They mailed the cash to the seller via FedEx, because they could insure the package.The money never arrived at the seller.🤔Because police in Indiana trained dogs to sniff for money instead of drugs. They then have the dogs sniff all the packages that go through the FedEx depot, and just... steal any cash that the dogs find🤡https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2024/08/13/marion-county-asset-forfeiture-treats-cash-transfers-as-crimes/74777122007/
(DIR) Post #Alo47KGkCgphA5zKHg by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-09-08T03:15:14Z
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I'm glad that Henry and Minh Chen's money was stolen by the cops, because it exposed the brazenness of the theft, and exposed that there was no pretense of this being "cartel money." The cops are just stealing from people, mostly poor, mostly Black.You might be thinking, "How could a system so cruel be put in place? How can the US government just steal billions from Black people, who are already the poorest demographic in the US? Who started this civil asset forfeiture scheme?"🙂
(DIR) Post #Alo47KrbzcK70RElkW by PJ_Evans@mas.to
2024-09-08T03:37:54Z
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@mekkaokereke It's been going on for years, probably many decades, and the cops shouldn't be given a pass on any of their own crimes (and civil forfeiture is theft: no charges, no recourse).
(DIR) Post #Alo47Llyc3PTpFbmbY by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-09-08T04:02:02Z
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@PJ_EvansCivil asset forfeiture in particular has been going on since Biden started it. Let me be super clear:There was no such thing as theft by cop civil asset forfeiture before Biden invented it. Then he invented it, and passed legislation making this theft possible. Now we have it and it's terrible.But yes, it's been going on for decades. Because Biden is old as dirt. He's been passing legislation like this, that's genocidally harmful for Black people for most of his political career.
(DIR) Post #Alo47MaJatfyLN9z4C by feld@friedcheese.us
2024-09-08T19:04:21.053094Z
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@mekkaokereke @PJ_Evans > Biden invented itPlease specify the legislation he authored. The exact bill that "invented" civil forfeiture. Without this it's completely reasonable for people to refute your claims.edit: it's in the thread but should have been in the original post
(DIR) Post #Alo47N7db0Ka0ikb0S by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-09-08T19:13:30Z
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@feld @PJ_Evans 1) It's specified several times in the thread. But I can share it again, because you asked nicely and said please.https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/1131034789840575502) My issue is not with people saying "Wait... what? Biden did what now? Which bill exactly?"I'll reply to one of your posts with a good and bad response, so that you can see what I'm talking about.
(DIR) Post #Alo47NuudnkKTXnwoK by feld@friedcheese.us
2024-09-08T19:41:14.035927Z
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@mekkaokereke @PJ_Evans The bill you linked failed and you know that a sponsor of a bill is not the same as the person who invented/authored it.The first bill introduced under this name had Biden listed as the first sponsor. (Strom Thurmond was second named)What actually passed was S1762 which was sponsored by Strom Thurmond in the Senate and by Hamilton Fish IV in the House. The version that was enacted into law used the language by Fish (HR 5963).Claiming Biden "invented" this is a gross exaggeration about an extremely bipartisan piece of legislation. You are not being a trustworthy narrator and you should be ashamed.https://www.congress.gov/bill/98th-congress/senate-bill/1762
(DIR) Post #Alo47OLV2x0to0FBFg by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-09-08T20:15:15Z
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@feld @PJ_Evans Ah. I see that you are one of those bad faith pedantic losers. My mistake for assuming good faith.Here's what I said in the post I linked to:"2) Who introduced the comprehensive forfeiture act in 1983, that was passed in 1984?"Do a diff on the language Biden introduced in 1983 and the language that was included in the Bill that passed that you linked to under the conveniently titled section "Title III: Forfeiture - Comprehensive Forfeiture Act of 1984 -"
(DIR) Post #Alo47P7i9hZuDWngOm by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-09-08T20:18:23Z
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@feld @PJ_Evans In particular, look for the specific language "Creates a rebuttable presumption of forfeitability of certain property."You're trying to pretend that Biden didn't both come up with this language, work with famous segregationist Strom Thurmond to get it into law, and then proudly campaign on the fact that he did all that. It's nonsense.Biden doesn't even deny that he is the origin of these policies. Why do weird dudes online try to pretend that someone else is the origin?
(DIR) Post #Alo47PvLBBHEhS1Jku by feld@friedcheese.us
2024-09-08T20:48:20.735933Z
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@mekkaokereke @PJ_Evans I see you are under the disillusion that Senators and House members literally write the legislation instead of put forth whatever the DC policy wonks come up with? You know this isn't how it works and our elected officials barely have time to read legislation let alone author it themselves, get it checked by the OLC, coordinate with the CBO, etc etc. If Biden claims he wrote it he's lying unless someone has video of him putting pen to paper.1. There was a problem2. Both sides agreed on something drafted by people whose day job it is to craft legislation3. Biden did his typical "reaching across the aisle" shtick and offered to put his name at the top and take the heat4. It went nowhere and the next attempt had Strom as the top sponsorTHE END
(DIR) Post #Alo47QRxDvMgKbHMae by mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
2024-09-08T21:00:46Z
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@feld @PJ_Evans 🤦🏿♂️Under the delusion?Listen. A group that I work with got the California Name, Image, and Likeness bill passed into law. Gavin Newsom signed it, but he didn't come up with the language.Before you presume to 'splain to me how laws get passed, or how the language is drafted, let me see a law that you helped get passed. Otherwise, go away.And I'm not debating you on Biden's trash "bipartisanship" that increased racist policies, and is the primary reason he is out of politics.
(DIR) Post #Alo47Qv1TqcJmksZto by ikanreed@mastodon.social
2024-09-08T21:32:11Z
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@mekkaokereke @feld @PJ_Evans there's a lot of people who just assumed that Obama would never take on one of the most far-right, racist senators in the Democratic party as his vice president. "Balancing" the 2008 ticket has turned out to be one of the most destructive choices in Democratic history.
(DIR) Post #Alo47RQDbrZRLVTUWW by feld@friedcheese.us
2024-09-08T21:51:17.046532Z
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@ikanreed the DNC is who has all the data on viable candidates, their polling data they've been collecting for years on them, and compiled all their oppo research to figure out what weaknesses they'll have and how well they'll play with independents.It is a bit of a stretch to believe Obama hand picked Biden. The truth is more like the DNC said "these are your best shots at not scaring away independents" and boasting Biden as being so good at working across the aside made him the obvious pick to clinch the win.The entire thing is controlled by the whims of the largest purse holders of these private corporations. (the parties are private corporations)
(DIR) Post #Alp88AY0Qa10H7gCLw by mhkohne@mastodon.social
2024-09-08T23:07:10Z
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@mekkaokereke OK, I had a thought earlier today in relation to something else: Something is slowly pushing folks to use cash less and some kind of electronic transaction more (evidence: My son was in London for two weeks in the spring and was UNABLE to spend the cash he took - businesses just don't want to fool with it). Is there some part of CAF that is being used to try to help this along? Doing anything with cash is now twice as dangerous: Criminals might rob you, or the cops might rob you.
(DIR) Post #Alp88B5gPMxBxZR5qS by erincandescent@akko.erincandescent.net
2024-09-09T07:47:54.782526Z
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@mhkohne @mekkaokereke in London it's simple: in the UK card fees are lower than cash handling fees for many merchants, plus you don't need to run card payments to the bank
(DIR) Post #Alp88BPBEsY8w2YfEe by mhkohne@mastodon.social
2024-09-08T23:10:13Z
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@mekkaokereke Or am I just starting to become paranoid, and CAF is just about the theft and the racism?
(DIR) Post #Alp88BaWYhcjVDriuu by erincandescent@akko.erincandescent.net
2024-09-09T10:10:08.171331Z
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@mhkohne @mekkaokereke Card fees are very visible. In the US they’re high (2% interchange is not uncommon, then add proessing fees)But cash is not freeThe merchant has to return it to the bank at the end of the day, so they can sort it, filter out fakes, and place the money into the merchant’s account to pay suppliers. They also have to purchase rolls of coins and packs of notes in the denominations they need in order to make change - because generally there’s a mismatch between the notes you receive from customers and those you need to hand back to them.Someone also needs to build ATMs. They need to maintain them. They need to send armoured trucks around regularly to restock them, so they continue to function. An awful lot of infrastructure is required to make cash work, and the baseline costs of running it are higher than running the card networks.In recent years, we’ve had fintech acquirers like Zettle and SumUp appear on the market. They’ve been successful in acquiring market share in part because they’ve driven down both the costs of terminals themselves, but also the transaction fees that retailers pay.And in EEA (and formerly-EEA) countries, where interchange is regulated to 0.2% for most debit cards and 0.3% for most credit cards, this means that the cost of accepting card payments has gone down a lot. In some countries (NL, SE, and UK all stand out here), it’s cheaper than cash.So merchants there are beginning to prefer it, or even not accept payments in cash. It doesn’t help that you can’t steal money from a card terminal in the same way as you would from a cash drawer.And this is important to understand, because access to cash and its’ utility is undeniably a net benefit for civilization.But to protect it we must figure out how to fund it.