When these subsidized officers make arrests, do they immediately get paid, even if those arrests end in dropped charges and release? That provides an incentive to arrest ANYONE, including American citizens, which ICE does routinely.
Three years ago in Maryland I was on board a Greyhound bus that blew a tire on the interstate and went off the road stranding it and leaving all of us sitting on the stationary bus waiting for help to arrive. A Maryland state trooper appeared stepped aboard and addressed us all from the front of the bus demanding we show identification saying it was part of "our action plan". Huh? There was no crime committed and he is taking ID's? Surely he was looking, fishing, for illegals. He did not find any and promptly left in his patrol car leaving us alone off the road.
To his credit, the bus driver told us that while he could not tell us what to do, it was up to each of us to decide whether to comply with the officer's request.
When I got home, I wrote the Maryland state police asking what the "action plan" was all about and not surprisingly did not receive a response. Now that you reveal this information today, I wonder if the "action plan" had anything to do with being deputized.
That’s a clear violation of the constitution. A police officer can’t demand or request to see identification without reasonable suspicion of a crime having been committed, or about to be committed. The only exception to this is when operating a motor vehicle.
What's more, our bus had to be winched out by a gigantic tow truck up at the side of the road and another bus arrived to take all of us on. All this while interstate traffic is flying by...and the officer took off instead of leaving his lights flashing in an obviously hazardous situation.
Every law enforcement agency in Florida has signed on to 287(g). Here in Pinellas county, the sheriff will hold immigration inmates for 48 hours until ICE picks them up. All our law enforcement in Pinellas take arrestees to one central jail run by the elected sheriff. On March 16, several Florida sheriffs and police chiefs went public with concerns abiut ICE treatment of non-criminal immigrants and families. It is also apparrent that many immigrants are being released on cash bond, which is a gift to our more traditional bounty hunters!
Bounty Hunting is certainly becoming a national pastime- The Texas abortion rat bounty, “deputizing” local public safety, tech companies get government favor by spying on everyone - who knows what else. There is precedent in our country - paid informants have always been a thing - i suspect that there were plenty of red scare incentives- and, lest we forget get, cash payments for scalps. To name a few. And then there are think tanks…
Thanks for digging into this. Please continue your work and keep a healthy dose of antibiotics handy as you burrow your way through the sewer.
This certainly explains why we have no money to fund Medicaid, Social Security, Public Education, Public libraries or Public... anything, doesn't it?
I'm going to share this as widely as I can, because quite apart from the political slant, there is a perturbing incentivization to make more arrests for money, just like the Private prisons system.
Once you are paid (handsomely) to make an arrest, the rectitude of the arrest goes out of the window.
Things like this really make red States look even more like shit. It also looks like Americans will do anything if the money is good. Regarding funding, there is always money for things that will hurt people. Just can't seem to get the money together for things to actually help people. We have become a disgusting country.
This evokes the Nazis use of Marseille police in 1943 (with support of the Vichy government and big business) to deport "undesireables" (,political opponents, Roma, Jews, gays, their equivalent to our homeless) to death camps. Really chilling when we see the historic parallels. Thanks for uncovering this Ken!
I don’t fully understand the “reason” in the following paragraph: “Absent from the list of bounty payments to states and localities are new payments to California, New Mexico, Illinois, Vermont, and Massachusetts as well as other “blue” states. The reason? The money is being doled out to cooperative pro-Trump states and departments, affirming that these are political payoffs and hardly a pure national program.
Who are the demon bureaucrats writing these policies?
Another question: who are the congresspeople funding them?
Another other question: who are the corporations and special interests funding the congresspeople
Some just do it for the love of the game
And what economic system ensures this will happen?
It seems pretty sly. Who is going to question a police officer that, by all appearances, is just making another arrest?
Exactly
When these subsidized officers make arrests, do they immediately get paid, even if those arrests end in dropped charges and release? That provides an incentive to arrest ANYONE, including American citizens, which ICE does routinely.
Three years ago in Maryland I was on board a Greyhound bus that blew a tire on the interstate and went off the road stranding it and leaving all of us sitting on the stationary bus waiting for help to arrive. A Maryland state trooper appeared stepped aboard and addressed us all from the front of the bus demanding we show identification saying it was part of "our action plan". Huh? There was no crime committed and he is taking ID's? Surely he was looking, fishing, for illegals. He did not find any and promptly left in his patrol car leaving us alone off the road.
To his credit, the bus driver told us that while he could not tell us what to do, it was up to each of us to decide whether to comply with the officer's request.
When I got home, I wrote the Maryland state police asking what the "action plan" was all about and not surprisingly did not receive a response. Now that you reveal this information today, I wonder if the "action plan" had anything to do with being deputized.
That’s a clear violation of the constitution. A police officer can’t demand or request to see identification without reasonable suspicion of a crime having been committed, or about to be committed. The only exception to this is when operating a motor vehicle.
What's more, our bus had to be winched out by a gigantic tow truck up at the side of the road and another bus arrived to take all of us on. All this while interstate traffic is flying by...and the officer took off instead of leaving his lights flashing in an obviously hazardous situation.
It tracks with the Amazon prime model of deportation
Every law enforcement agency in Florida has signed on to 287(g). Here in Pinellas county, the sheriff will hold immigration inmates for 48 hours until ICE picks them up. All our law enforcement in Pinellas take arrestees to one central jail run by the elected sheriff. On March 16, several Florida sheriffs and police chiefs went public with concerns abiut ICE treatment of non-criminal immigrants and families. It is also apparrent that many immigrants are being released on cash bond, which is a gift to our more traditional bounty hunters!
Bounty Hunting is certainly becoming a national pastime- The Texas abortion rat bounty, “deputizing” local public safety, tech companies get government favor by spying on everyone - who knows what else. There is precedent in our country - paid informants have always been a thing - i suspect that there were plenty of red scare incentives- and, lest we forget get, cash payments for scalps. To name a few. And then there are think tanks…
Thanks for digging into this. Please continue your work and keep a healthy dose of antibiotics handy as you burrow your way through the sewer.
This certainly explains why we have no money to fund Medicaid, Social Security, Public Education, Public libraries or Public... anything, doesn't it?
I'm going to share this as widely as I can, because quite apart from the political slant, there is a perturbing incentivization to make more arrests for money, just like the Private prisons system.
Once you are paid (handsomely) to make an arrest, the rectitude of the arrest goes out of the window.
You are doing amazing journalism.
Glad you liked it Maria !
"Posse Comeandgetus" -- Good one! I like the witticisms in your subscription requests.
Thanks for publishing this information about the highly paid ICE collaborators. So disgusting that so much money is being wasted in this way.
Things like this really make red States look even more like shit. It also looks like Americans will do anything if the money is good. Regarding funding, there is always money for things that will hurt people. Just can't seem to get the money together for things to actually help people. We have become a disgusting country.
And if these local cops are overburdened and burnt out, who cares? It's not like regular local policing is a priority for regular folks or anything.
This evokes the Nazis use of Marseille police in 1943 (with support of the Vichy government and big business) to deport "undesireables" (,political opponents, Roma, Jews, gays, their equivalent to our homeless) to death camps. Really chilling when we see the historic parallels. Thanks for uncovering this Ken!
How about we deport the people who support ICE? We should send them to Israel.
Wow, every police department should be called “The Coward Police Department.” Official motto: “I was afraid for my life.”
This is why people draw a direct line from slave catchers to police officers. ICE is just policing in this country on steroids.
I don’t fully understand the “reason” in the following paragraph: “Absent from the list of bounty payments to states and localities are new payments to California, New Mexico, Illinois, Vermont, and Massachusetts as well as other “blue” states. The reason? The money is being doled out to cooperative pro-Trump states and departments, affirming that these are political payoffs and hardly a pure national program.
About time to read The Federalist 51, by James Madison. The Founders were not the royalists that SCOTUS would have us believe they were.