zlacker

>>dtagam+(OP)
The thing that really makes things worse is that the police are causing most of these protests and riots with their violent, unwarranted behavior.

This triggers riots and protests, which require the police to work overtime.

They get paid for causing all these problems, and well paid. Their overtime costs must be tremendous. And who ends up paying? We do.

We should claw back police overtime pay for any protests or riots that are caused by the police themselves. I think that's fair and equitable.

>>jennyy+1j
Over the last week I have been starting to realize that what you said is true in general, and not just of protests. It seems that police inflame and instigate most of the violent situations they are involved in. We are literally paying to be abused. We shouldn't be trying to get that money back; we shouldn't even be paying it in the first place.

>>rabidr+Co
One example is civil asset forfeiture. Police can and do stop people at random, see if they have “suspicious” valuables or a little too much money, and seize it. It’s virtually impossible to fight the case and it’s literally free money with zero consequence to the police. If you try to deny them their free money, they just arrest you. It’s legally condoned robbery.

I’ve had friends who’ve been pulled over while passing through Illinois and asked to hand over their wallets just so the cops can count their money. They only had a few bucks and were let go, but I’m sure if it was a little too much, the cops would’ve claimed it was drug money and taken it. The cops didn’t mention speeding or any sort of crime, so their reason for pulling them over was pretty clear. They probably target non-local people because nobody is going to come back just for a hundred bucks or so, and if they need to make up a ticket on the spot, few people will bother to fight it.

>>fiblye+zq
> It’s virtually impossible to fight the case and it’s literally free money with zero consequence to the police.

This is a problem that could be easily greatly improved with legislation (and without requiring the more radical and controversial step of abolishing civil forfeiture entirely) - each state could legislate that civil forfeiture proceeds are to be paid into the general state budget not kept by the local police forces. This would remove much of the incentive for overuse of civil forfeiture.