Man Loses Truck For Two Years Over A Few Bullets; Civil Asset Forfeiture Abuses Rage On
In September of 2015, Gerardo Serrano was driving from his home in Kentucky to visit relatives in Mexico. When he stopped at the border in Texas, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers searched his truck and found five bullets in the center console. While Serrano has a concealed carry permit, he did not have any weapon in the vehicle. He had simply forgotten about the bullets he’d left in the console.
Always eager to pounce on any excuse to grab property (which often helps pad the budget of the law enforcement agency involved), the Border Patrol officers declared that Serrano was transporting “munitions of war” and therefore they were taking his vehicle from him. Customs did not attempt to bring any criminal action against him, but impounded his truck under civil asset forfeiture. Under that law, government officials can take a person’s property on the theory that the property itself is guilty of some wrongdoing.
Once the property has been forfeited, the owner has to undertake a lengthy and difficult legal battle to get it back. Many unfortunate people can’t do that and just give up.
OMG! A famous person! Posing with a rifle! OMG! . . . ‘NCIS’ Star Maria Bello Criticized for ‘Shameful’ Gun Photo
While a number of fans responded with excitement for what Jack Sloane might be up to, other Instagram users criticized the actress for smiling while holding a gun in the wake of this month’s Las Vegas shooting.
“That’s a shameful pic,” one individual wrote. “Always been a fan, but glamorizing assault weapons after Vegas is clumsy at best, callous at worst. One less fan. Good luck with ‘NCIS.’”
“There is nothing sexy about anyone holding a gun,” wrote another fan.
What’s in yours? . . . Bug Out Bag Essentials List: Our Complete Guide to Build a Good BOB
If you think about it for a short amount of time, you will be surprised by the numerous steps you can come up with on your own to provide the best chance for you, your family, and friends–often called “your party”–to come out the other side of a disaster healthy and whole.
However, just because you feel confident in your abilities to work through this type of problem on your own does not mean you have accounted for the litany of potential issues that can bring everything to a crashing halt. That is why we have developed this series: to help guide you from random Joe Schmo to master prepper in no time.
The amount of information you need know at the drop of a hat can be staggering. If a disaster were to happen, you might know where you would go. You might even know what route you would take.
What else is new? . . . With Bizarre Comparisons, NRA Receives Global Recognition and Scorn
NRA is often recognized by the American press and lawmakers as one of the most powerful political institutions in the U.S. However, it might surprise some to know that NRA’s influence is acknowledged throughout the globe.
Given that even other Western countries don’t share the U.S.’s strong support for natural rights, the foreign press and political classes tend to treat NRA even more harshly than do NRA’s domestic foes. Some have even taken to labeling those they don’t agree with, or unsavory political elements, as their country’s version of NRA. While NRA is accustomed to such scorn, those offering it should bother to get their facts right.
In an October 19 piece for the United Kingdom’s Independent titled, “Hardline Brexiteers are the UK’S NRA – and we can’t let them take control of the country,” writer James Moore used this tactic. Moore contended that those in the UK who support a robust implementation of the UK people’s decision to leave the European Union (the Leave Means Leave campaign) are akin to NRA.
Is there a service Amazon won’t provide?
The soft bigotry of low expectations . . . Fox News Poll: NRA More Popular than NFL!
A new Fox News poll showing increased viewer rejection of the National Football League also revealed that the National Rifle Association is more popular than a collective of protesting players.
According to the poll, which was conducted Oct. 22-24, just 46% of respondents found the league in a favorable light, down from a strong 64% just four years ago.
At the same time, the NRA was seen as more favorable than the NFL, with 49 percent favorability. That may be music to the ears of Second Amendment activists, but Capitol Hill anti-gunners probably won’t care for it.
Worse for the NFL, the new poll reports 41% of people surveyed had an unfavorable view of the NFL, and that number is much higher than in 2013, when only 19% of people viewed the league negatively.
This is what happens when artists are bugged by guns . . . In Mpls., busted-up guns become ‘surreal’ art exhibit
Artist and organizer Nikki McComb sifted through the boxes of firearms pieces and took out all the jagged shards before distributing them for artists to use in their pieces.
McComb said even the broken-up weapons still held a sort of power, something she especially noticed as she drove around with the pieces on the passenger seat of her car.
“In my mind, I know they’re broken down, but I could have been pulled over at any time, and law enforcement could have seen a barrel of a shotgun and who knows what would have happened?” McComb said. “It’s surreal being a person who doesn’t handle guns or own guns and you’re walking around town with guns.”
Well I like the NRA more than the NFL…but then I’m a lowly OFWG. And I voted for Trump. BTW I was in 3 of the Indiana gunshops mentioned in TTAG yesterday. Didn’t see any criminal activity😜😜😜😜
The theory of civil asset forfeiture is that the government may seize as “contraband” any instr4umentality used in the commission of a crime, or which is a the product of criminal activity (such as houses, cars, boats, art, etc.), so that “crime does not pay.” My major issue with the federal (and most state) civil asset forfeiture laws is that it puts the burden of proof on the defendant to prove the negative, that his wad of cash was his pay, that the house was from legitimate (and reported) earnings, etc. Thus, the government need prove nothing, and the defendant must prove innocence. The system is thus ripe for abuse–seize now, let the asshole complain, must be the motto. Moreover, the money or assets seized are not subject to any limitations as to how they are spent. One GOOD law California recently passed returns the burden of proof back where it belongs. The state must now prove that the goods are dirty money or acquired with dirty money. The police are not too happy, I am sure, as the state just took away their cookie jar. It is time for the feds to follow suit.
Asset forfeiture is criminal gang larceny performed under the color of law. It is shameful and the cops should hang their heads that their moral compass is so skewed as to think theft is acceptable behavior.
+1
Totally nailed it.
If asset forfeiture is going to be law of the land it needs to be after a full and complete trial (Including appeals)
…and then they wonder why nobody trusts the gubmint or the cops.
Don’t they mean “taken?”
They mean “taken.” We know it as theft, robbery, confiscation, criminal conspiracy…
With regards to the BOB article….
They have a lot of good information but one of the things I think often gets overlooked in that discussion is physical fitness.
Simply put most people ain’t walking out of a disaster area. Generally speaking people need to put that idea the fuck out of their head or start hitting the gym religiously. I ran the Darin Fink SAC this year and most of the people who trained for that event FOR A YEAR dropped out without finishing the event (40+ miles in day and a half with your gear, plus shooting and other challenges). The folks that did well generally had multiple Fink competitions under their belt and some of them didn’t even complete this thing. Add in some medical complications or children/pets and you’re just not doing this.
If people who spend a year preparing physically, mentally, gear and food wise for what, in relation to a serious SHTF situation, is a pretty light event and still can’t complete it the chances your average “prepper” is going to have the physical capabilities to “walk out” of a major disaster are rapidly approaching 0. You’re gonna need a vehicle.
So you’re saying that those of us too old or beat up or otherwise not capable of physical training or learning a martial art should just FOAD? In the event, sir, regardless of your level of physical training or stamina, a bad guy with a gun, or even a desperate good guy with a family, can blow your brains out and “borrow” your truck and/or Bug Out Bag.
The point is to prepare for such events to the best of your ability and in regards to your limitations and those of anyone who may accompany you, not just give up because your blown out knee or your other physical limitations will not allow you to run a quarter mile or take on three teen-age thugs in hand-to-hand combat. The VERY LAST THING I would do in such situations is risk my physical well-being by taking damage in a fight, even if I was not too old to engage in such sport. When things get real and someone wants to take from me what I need to survive all he is going to get is whatever I have loaded in my Ruger SR9c. Only if that doesn’t work can he take the rest.
“So you’re saying that those of us too old or beat up or otherwise not capable of physical training or learning a martial art should just FOAD?”
I’m really not sure where you got the idea that I ever said that because I didn’t ever say that. I really rather tire of folks making shit up and claiming that I said it.
I simply said that a lot of preppers (who I didn’t mention by name) think they’re going to “walk out” and they’re not. That’s not saying “FOAD cause you can’t make it old man”, that’s telling you to find a better plan than thinking you can accomplish something the vast majority of people plainly cannot. As I said, you’re gonna need a vehicle. In fact, I’m gonna need one too.
“As I said, you’re gonna need a vehicle. In fact, I’m gonna need one too.”
Damn straight.
There happens to be one that is fully EMP-proof *and* uses zero gas or diesel fuel.
A fold-up mountain bike with puncture-proof tires. Make sure you put a frame-mounted tire pump on it where one of the bottle cages go, a few spare tubes and tools to go with it.
A bike baby trailer for your gear and you can move 50+ plus miles a day in your physical condition…
The kind of mentality that’s going to prevail isn’t just brute physical prowess, training, and prepping. That stuff helps, but truthfully the kind of people that will thrive in this environment are the people who already kind of live like that, bums and criminals. They are not particularly well prepared or in good shape, but they will get far on taking advantage of others, using brute force against the weak, and theft. Your typical criminal isn’t going to do a 40 mile ruck march in a timed event to get out of or into a certain area. He’s going to jack someone’s car and drive it till it’s out of gas, then wait and ambush someone for more gas or a bike. And continue like that until they eventually get eaten by a bigger fish.
You’re over thinking it S9. A shtf scenario isn’t a sporting event. History is full of average, untrained schlubs, recent history as well, that have gotten themselves out of harms way.
We mostly call them refugees.
I’m not a young man. But I have experience and knowledge that might help me and my loved ones in a crisis. I also have a jogging stroller. I don’t intend to hump a hundred pound ruck day and night.
That’s why they invented the wheel.
“That’s why they invented the wheel.”
That’s my point… There are way, way too many people who think they’re gonna hump a ruck really damn far if SHTF and they’re not. We’re a species that uses tools and rather than just carrying them around we can use other tools (like a vehicle) to move our other tools around more easily.
I’m simply pointing out the unrealistic expectations of many in the prepper community.
Personally I’m not really a prepper I just look at the people who are and wonder why they don’t use a bit more common sense.
I don’t care what you call them. Those who survive any major emergency or breakdown of society will be those who prepare in a good number of ways. One of the most important, that I seldom see even mentioned, is to find a community (or large extended family) of like minded people. Live in a rationally defensible place, nowhere near a big city, and train together. The lone wolf “prepper” can do anything they like, but they still have to eat, sleep and take an occasional dump. No one person, or even a few, will be able to defend themselves realistically over time.
This whole idea of picking up a bag (or whatever) and walking OUT of a danger zone is completely nuts. And I don’t care how well conditioned you are physically. You MIGHT get lucky, of course, but the odds are greatly that you will become a victim sooner or later.
It’s just like the only 100% successful gun fight… don’t be there. If the fight comes to you, choose your ground and make full use of every resource. Let your attackers be the exhausted idiots who walked 80 or 90 miles to get to you.
Refugees usually have a goal in mind: to reach a place where they will be provided with that least the absolute minimal necessities. In many refugee camps, they get little more, but they still stay there, because there’s no place for them to go that will provide something better.
And the key word there is “provide.” As in, they are given these things, because they can’t get them on their own.
The idea of being a prepper (no matter what level prepper you are) is to be self sufficient from the get go. That’s an entirely different idea from being a refugee.
The Niners suck (0-8), and the NFL does too. I don’t bother watching anymore, even though football was and is a “made for TV” sport.
Serrano’s case wasn’t about bullets, it was about him asserting his rights.
Power hungry thugs hate people who think they have rights.
WASHINGTON – Two years ago, Gerardo Serano – an American citizen, Kentucky farmer and a one-time GOP Kentucky statehouse candidate – was driving his brand new, $60,000 Ford F-250 pick-up truck to visit relatives in Mexico, snapping pictures along the way, when Customs and Border Patrol agents halted him at the border, demanded his cell phone, and asked him why he was taking pictures.
“I just wanted the opening of the bridge. I was gonna take the opening of the bridge, the entrance of the bridge. That’s all I wanted to do,” Serano told Fox News.
As a self-proclaimed student of the Constitution, Serano said he knew his rights, and protested to Customs and Border Patrol agents vehemently when they asked him to unlock his phone.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/20/has-asset-forfeiture-gone-too-far-truck-seizure-case-sparks-outrage-call-for-change.html
OTOH, if he’d gotten past the CBP, the Mexicans would have done more than just take his truck. Carrying ammo into a totalitarian hellhole has its consequences.
Hmm, do I dislike the NFL or NRA more… I think I’ll go with the NRA as worse. NFL merely hates my guts and insults me. NRA actively undermines my right to keep and bear arms.
Honestly the most surprising part about the NCIS pic is NCIS taking effort to get something vaguely right.
Several NFL teams donate to the DNC. A few though, donate to the RNC. There’s actually a spectrum of most liberal and conservative teams.
BTW…in re the BoB…
What is the value of the miniature lever-action rifle?
It fires the ubiquitous and eminently deadly .9mm.
It’s a Henry. ‘Nuff said.
Although I figure the handgun should be in a matching chambering for duality’s sake: get a Big Boy in .357, match it with a Ruger GP100 and you’re golden.
I think I felt a tingle run up my leg when you said that…
“I figure the handgun should be in a matching chambering for duality’s sake:”
Eh, that can go two ways – If you’re scrounging, having 9mm and .357 weapons doubles your chances of finding *something* that can go *bang* when needed…
I did very well at that gun buy in Mpls. That was a great day, hope they do it again because I’ve got more junk to get rid of.
Do you really need a shovel, machete and an ax in your BOB/get home bag? Adds weight and it may be a long walk.
Are we talking about a BOB or a GHB? Two different things with two different purposes.
My GHB lives in my vehicle, while my BOB sits in the basement. They have similar basic kit (flashlight, blanket, fire starter, etc.), but because the GHB is in the truck, and I live in a forested area, it includes an axe. The BOB doesn’t have an axe but that’s because there’s already one in the truck. And a small chainsaw is on the grab-list (3rd level down, if we have 15 minutes or more notice) for bugging out.
The BOB has more stuff for longer term stays away from home, e.g. supplies of prescription meds.
“There is nothing sexy about anyone holding a gun,” said no heterosexual male about Maria Bello, ever.
FIFY
Artist and organizer Nikki McComb
*rolls eyes*
I’ve driven through the inland border checkpoints with rifle cases in the back seat and dead animals in the back of the truck. There is absolutely nothing illegal about having guns and ammunition in Texas.
And there’s nothing illegal about saying ‘get a warrant’ to CBP criminals, but if you do say ‘get a warrant’ to those criminal piles of feces, they’ll go to any lengths to find the flimsiest excuse to steal your truck. And United States Attorneys will aid and abet them.
And the only solution is to end civil forfeiture, totally and completely.
Ending CBP officers and US Attorneys is no solution, they’ll only be replaced with more felons just like them.
The insidious practice of “civil assets forfeiture” (read: criminal gangster piracy) deserves as much scorn and fury as any infringement upon our 2nd Amendment rights. For all our disdain and anger over the slightest shade cast upon our 2A, how we as a nation tolerate this egregious criminal infringment upon our Constitutional 4th Amendment rights is beyond belief to me…. I really don’t want to believe it’s just because so many of us support law enforcement, and that the perceived majority of citizens affected by “civil assets forfeiture” laws are disliked groups experiencing our prejudiced indifference (read: thugs or no thugs, it DOESN’T MATTER– Constitutional rights are for every American citizen, regardless how we may feel about their level of contribution to our society). The whole seedy practice of gangster piracy to divide the loot and reinforce the militarization of civilian law enforcement should evoke shame and disgust by honest law enforcement professionals who take pride in their voluntary duty to Americans.
There is process, a due process. In the United States, We have citizen rights and a justice system for a reason (for many reasons…). It’s not perfect, but that is absolutely no excuse for changing rules for your team, self-righteously claiming it’s for the betterment of public safety, while benefitting from the material candy like war booty. Are American police feudal paramilitary organizations whose “enemy” is our own neighbors, families, towns, and states, the citizenry? Cutting corners with Constitutional rights doesn’t make you more effective police, and it doesn’t “even out the playing field against the Bad Guys.” All it does is 100% negative to our society: it plays directly into the narrative that police are just opportunistic, corrupt, power-abusing assholes, and most importantly, it actually makes the police no better than the criminals they are battling. I’ve read all kinds of ludicrous rationalizations for why “civil assets forfeiture” and “highway interdiction” is a healthy thing for police departments, and you know what it reminds me of? The same bullshit rationalizations that statist gun control proponents use… selfish excuses for why violating American citizens’ Constitutional rights is justified, plain and simple.
We should be furious about this. But, we probably won’t care en masse until it starts happening to “us” …that random day you’re pulled over on the highway driving out to a shoot, and maybe you look a little too scruffy that day, and have a few too many arms for comfort, and your neighbor with a badge has a mind to say you look like you might be a bad guy… then when your stuff gets seized because you’re “suspected” of breaking the law to reap your “suspected ill-gotten gains,” it’ll sure feel different that day. Will anyone say anything on your behalf then? And for all the prejudiced fantasy some of us have that this injustice only happens to those “who deserve it,” I think folks who stoke that delusion are dreaming… classic “that’ll never happen to me” syndrome.
We urge one another to call and write and pester our political representatives whenever the 2nd Amendment is under threat in the slightest. We really ought to have as much concern about the erosion and threat to our 4th Amendment rights, too. All of us. It’s plain wrong… and if you don’t know much about “civil assets forfeiture” and “highway interdiction,” do a little bit of research– you’ll discover some surprising things, not the least of which is that such stories like the one above are way too common.
If you’re a freedom loving American citizen, many of the documented cases of “civil assets forfeiture” and “highway interdiction” will make the hair on your neck stand up sharp as nails. We can respect, appreciate, and support our fellow citizens in law enforcement, god knows– but we shouldn’t accept 4th Amendment violations as a matter of course, regardless the gravity of their difficult duties… make that: *especially* because of the gravity of their duties.
Be safe.
Gee, I was so mad about the first newsbite, I forgot to say:
Watch out for that Maria Bello… she has a “History of Violence” !!!
bwahaha… I am not even gonna comment on it, except to say… ummm, yup.
wooo, yikes
PS– Maria, you go girl, and all that. Haters gonna hate, but hotness gonna hot.
Interesting reading some of the comments about bugging out.
I’m not really a prepper but i do try to be prepared. Food and water and whatnot.
If i was thinking about having to “bug out” to somewhere else if the SHTF, i think i would work toward moving there permenantly before the SHTF.
I don’t have a bugout bag. I have a get-home bag.
My plan is to be as comfortable as possible where i am.
If i were to have to leave there is only so much stuff that will fit in my truck.
They aim to please…
LMAO!!!
I’m an Amazon.com Prime Member, Does This Mean I get Put On the List Of Preferred Customers To Get Get Killed Off First? LMAO!!!
I’m finding this Mario Bello backwash hilarious with a bit of schadenfreude.