How can you tell if you’re living in a police state?
The short answer is that you’re living in a police state when everyone
becomes a suspected criminal or terrorist. And if the following report is any
indicator, then welcome to the Reich.
The Justice Department has ordered bank tellers across America to
contact law enforcement if they suspect your cash withdrawal may have
something to do with illicit activity. There doesn’t need to be proof, or any
sort of red flag indicator – merely suspicion by the bank teller processing
your transaction is now enough to have you investigated by authorities.
Via The Sovereign Man Simon Black
What a lot of people don’t realize is that banks are already unpaid
government spies.
Federal regulations in the Land of the Free REQUIRE banks to file
‘suspicious activity reports’ or SARs on their customers. And it’s not
optional.
Banks have minimum quotas of SARs they need to fill out and submit to the
federal government.
If they don’t file enough SARs, they can be fined. They can lose their
banking charter. And yes, bank executives and directors can even be
imprisoned for noncompliance.
This is the nature of the financial system in the Land of the Free.
And chances are, your banker has filled one out on you—they submitted 1.6
MILLION SARs in 2013 alone.
But now the Justice Department is saying that SARs aren’t enough.
Now, whenever banks suspect something ‘suspicious’ is going on, they want
them to pick up the phone and call the cops:
“[W]e encourage those institutions to consider whether to take
more action: specifically, to alert law enforcement authorities about the
problem, who may be able to seize the funds, initiate an investigation, or
take other proactive steps.”
So what exactly constitutes ‘suspicious activity’? Basically
anything.
According to the handbook for the Federal Financial Institution
Examination Council, banks are required to file a SAR with respect to:
“Transactions conducted or attempted by, at, or through the bank (or an
affiliate) and aggregating $5,000 or more…”
It’s utterly obscene. According to the Justice Department,
going to the bank and withdrawing $5,000 should potentially prompt a banker
to rat you out to the police.
Do you need to withdraw cash to purchase a used car from a private seller?
Or perhaps you are pulling out some emergency cash for a loved one.
Either one of these activities are now considered suspicious and if your
cash withdrawal amounts to even a few thousand dollars your bank teller is
under a legal requirement to alert officials about your suspected criminal
activity. And before you argue that you can’t possibly be a suspect because
you have done nothing wrong, consider that even being suspected of being a
suspect is now enough to land you on a terrorist watchlist in America.
In fact, according to the Obama Administration concrete facts are no longer necessary:
The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of
the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires
neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American
or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document
obtained by The Intercept.
…
Because the government tracks “suspected terrorists” as well as “known
terrorists,” individuals can be watchlisted if they are
suspected of being a suspected terrorist, or if they are suspected of
associating with people who are suspected of terrorism activity.
But you’re not a terrorist, right?
Wrong. In America, everyone is now suspected of terrorism
or suspected of associating with people who might be terrorists. And because
this is now the culture that exists within law enforcement agencies on the
local, state and Federal levels, everyone is considered guilty until proven
innocent.
And that goes double for your personal assets.
In 2012 law enforcement agencies seized $4.2 billion in assets from
Americans. In most cases the money, homes, cars or other assets were seized
without probable cause, warrants, charge or trial.
Because according to the government, you don’t own that and the Justice Department just
made it easier to engage in authorized “shake-downs” of the American people.
Here’s how the scam works:
A police officer pulls a car over for speeding. The officer thinks
he smells marijuana and seizes money and perhaps other property from the
vehicle. The officer (or other law enforcement agent) writes and signs a
statement or affidavit explaining the situation and reasons for the seizure
of the property. That statement is used to show the courts the link
between the alleged criminal behavior and the seized property.
This amounts to true “highway robbery” or roadside piracy.
Because the case is against the property and not the owner,
court cases have names like these:
United States v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency
State v. One 2012 Mercedes Benz
United States v. One Gold Necklace
Property, of course, does not have constitutional rights. As Sarah
Stillman explains in her New Yorker article Taken:
There’s no right to an attorney and, in most states, no presumption of
innocence. Owners who wish to contest often find that the cost of hiring a
lawyer far exceeds the value of their seized goods. Washington, D.C., charges
up to twenty-five hundred dollars simply for the right to challenge a police
seizure in court, which can take months or even years to resolve.
….
Asset forfeiture creates huge incentives for law enforcement
officers to “police for profit”. The money can be used for salaries and
to purchase advanced equipment.
Full Report – Civil Asset Forfeiture: “You Don’t Own
That”
From this point forward keep in mind that a trip to the bank could end
with you being “investigated” by police. As we’ve seen time and again, police
can simply call in a K-9 unit that will inevitably find trace amounts of drugs on your cash
(because all cash has trace amounts of cocaine, meth or other substances).
Once you’ve been identified as a suspected drug smuggler, they give
themselves the authority to seize your cash, car, and even your house if they
so choose.
It’s a sad state of affairs when law-abiding American citizens now have to
worry about how to hide their money where the bankers and police can’t find it.
When travelling or keeping money at home consider the Shovel and Maneuver for Hiding Gold, Guns and Other
Assets:
And of course, you’ll want to keep mum about your new investments and how
they’re being stored, because loose lips will pose a threat to not just your
gold hoard, but your life as well. If thieves get wind of your investments,
they may show up not with a metal detector, but armaments, putting your
entire family at risk.
The scary part is that the thieves are now our very own government
officials and law enforcement authorities so they can give themselves the
legal authority to come in guns blazing anytime they so choose.
