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Title: Police Steal $16,000 from Farmer to Finance a Larger Operation to Rob More People
Source:
Free Thought Project/IJ Review
URL Source: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/po ... e-larger-operation-rob-people/
Published: Jun 10, 2015
Author: Matt Agorist
Post Date: 2015-06-10 20:58:03 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1356
Comments: 25
Livingston, MT — Lorenzo Ayala was on his way back from being stood up by a woman he met online when he was pulled over and subsequently robbed by a Montana State Trooper. During his drive to meet his online friend, Ayala, who is also a farmer, was also going to purchase parts for his broken tractor so he had his savings of $16,000 in his trunk. On his way to California, Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Erick Fetterhoff pulled Ayala over on Interstate 90 near Livingston, according to court records. Fetterhoff is trained as an expert to seek out substances that his bosses tell him to kidnap and cage people for possessing. He said in his police report that he smelled cologne and saw multiple suspicious items indicative of these substances. Fetterhoff then deprived Ayala of his right to be secure in his own belongings and began to tear apart his vehicle in search of illegal drugs. No drugs were found. What was found, however, was $16,020 that Ayala had saved to purchase parts to fix his tractor. Despite the Highway Patrol not finding any illegal substances, and not charging Ayala with a crime, his money was ‘seized’ or stolen, depending on who you ask. This money was stolen in June of 2013. It was then used to help finance an entire unit devoted to pulling people over and stealing their property. In the last 18 months alone, the patrol has spent more than $170,000 of stolen funds to build a larger operation to keep stealing more funds in a crazy cycle of robbery for growth. The good news is, however, that their robbery scheme will soon be coming to an end, or at least it will be heavily diminished. For years, the courts acted with the police and were able to rob people like Ayala without convicting them of a crime. But on July 1, all of that changes. Montana became the fourth state to overhaul their “policing for profit” scam. At the beginning of next month, officers must store suspects’ assets until the owner is convicted of a crime involving that property. “The police ought to have to prove something before they take your stuff away,” Chris Young, one of Ayala’s attorneys, said. “And now they do.” While this is a small step forward in the fight to stop the fleecing of American citizens by law enforcement, it will likely lead to a slew of other problems. Police will likely be reluctant to bring their windfall operations to a halt, so they will likely take any means necessary to seek convictions; whether or not the person is actually guilty of a crime. It has gotten so bad that the Canadian government has issued a public service announcement for its citizens warning them that American Road Pirates, aka police officers, may very well rob them upon entry into the US. Since September 2001, there have been 62,000 incidents of road piracy; resulting in a booty of over $2.5 billion. In the US, “298 departments and 210 task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008” according to a report by the Post. Some might try and say that this money and property is obviously “taken from criminals” in order to rationalize this theft on a massive scale. However, as is evident in the case of Mr. Ayala, the government does not have to charge you with a crime, let alone convict you, to take your property and after they steal your property the burden of proof is on you to get it back. Only one sixth of the 62,000 cases of cash forfeitures to police in the last decade have been challenged in court due to the high cost of challenging the state; not to mention that since their money was stolen, even if they once had the funds to challenge the theft, they may not any longer. The justice department’s asset forfeiture fund in 2011 was $1.8 billion. In Philadelphia alone, more than $64 million in seized property has been taken in the last decade and 100% of it has gone into the pockets of cops, judges, and other bureaucrats with a hand in the treasure chest. But these billions stolen from the citizens of this country by the ones who claim to keep them safe, are just an example of a few bad apples, right? It’s most assuredly not a systemic problem resulting from the glaring unaccountable nature of the state. A Farmer Had $16,000 to Buy Tractor Parts, Instead He Ended Up a Victim of ‘Policing For Profit’ Fetterhoff, a drug recognition expert, saw several items that made him suspicious: a single key in the ignition, a bag of beef jerky, a bottle of Visine, cologne, lighters, clothing stored in plastic grocery bags, and trash littered throughout the car.” Let that sink in - beef jerky, cologne, Visine and a messy car are are enough to have you tagged as a drug dealer. Welcome to Police State USA. 
Road piracy in the US has reached epic proportions.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 20.
#1. To: Deckard (#0)
For once, I have less sympathy for the victim. Farm machinery and tractor parts are rarely cash-only. In most farm states, a local check is good anywhere because the courts are more lenient with people who rob liquor stores than those who kite bad checks. So, this time, I'd like to see this guy prove he had to pay cash for tractor parts. And I'd like to know who was selling the tractor parts and why they won't accept a check like every other business in rural America. No, this is not an ordinary transaction. Something stinks about the buyer or the seller or both. That said, it's a shame that Montana police would sink to roadside banditry. I always thought they were about the classiest cops in the States. Very laid back about speeding laws (outside towns).
I deal with farmers all the time, and they always prefer cash in any transactions. The only time they'll accept a personal check is if they know and trust the person they're dealing with. Would YOU accept a personal out of state check for $16,000 from a hispanic stranger from two states away? I didn't think so.
Would YOU expect that Lorenzo Ayala living in Palo Alto, California, needed to drive all the way Montana to buy $16.020 worth of tractor parts and load $16,020 worth of tractor parts in his Volkswagen Jetta to then drive all the way back to Palo Alto, California, so he could fix his tractor….when Google shows 1,830,000 hits is 0.62 seconds for “Tractor Parts California? Come on…don’t buy into this yellow journalism bullshit.
Ayala might not have been breaking the law but you can't say there aren't quite a few suspicious facts here. No tractor parts dealer or parts, no Internet floozy to hook up with in Billings, etc. I'm not saying the forfeiture was correct or should stand. But the trooper had enough cause for suspicions of this lovelorn, tractor-parts-questing "farmer". And from Palo Alto, a wealthy enclave of the San Francisco metro area, not exactly an agricultural heartland. I don't think there are very many farmers in Palo Alto. It's a small metro area within the Bay Area metroplex. Someone needs to show me this broken tractor and tell me what parts it needs that cost $16,000. How about just finding the name and model of the tractor? Was it a transmission or an engine or what? Could Ayala provide the name of any tractor parts dealer that he had visited? Was it parts that could even be fit inside his car? What about this supposed woman in Billings? Does she even exist? As usual, a lot of investigative details are omitted in favor of outrage blogging. Just do a search on this guy's name, lots of inflammatory articles and aggregator site hits, most of them rehashed from a handful of primary news accounts, very little info on the actual background facts of the case.
#21. To: All (#20)
I've yet to see a single farmer driving a VW. In my whole life.
She could clear all this up in a heartbeat. What's her name and what address did he go to? Another thought. Who puts $16,020 in the trunk of their car to meet someone they met online two states away? I don't care what the reason was, that's really stupid.
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#17. To: TooConservative (#1)
#19. To: Logsplitter, TooConservative, GrandIsland, misterwhite (#17)
Would YOU accept a personal out of state check for $16,000 from a hispanic stranger from two states away? I didn't think so.
#20. To: Gatlin, Logsplitter (#19)
Replies to Comment # 20. Volkswagen Jetta
#25. To: TooConservative (#20)
"What about this supposed woman in Billings? Does she even exist?"
End Trace Mode for Comment # 20.
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