The Washington Post reports that a Nevada trooper stopped former Marine Stephen Lara, over a bogus claim about the highway patrol trying to educate drivers “about violations they may not realize they’re committing,” telling the former Marine he’d been pulled over for “following a tanker truck too closely,” - a claim Lara denied. The trooper then searched Lara’s car and found $87,000 in cash, which the police immediately confiscated and refused to return, even though Lara was released and charged with no crime. Lara is now suing to get his money returned to him.
Oh, I get it now! He was pulled over for “tailgating.” Now, to be completely honest, I don’t like tailgaters either, but isn’t an $87,000 fine just a wee bit extreme? Why, that’s nearly as much as a parking meter violation here in LA. Meanwhile, Lara told the cops he was carrying the cash because doesn’t trust banks, but his ex-wife thinks he’s just hiding the money from her.
Perhaps, but what I don’t get is, how is it that carrying around a large wad of cash in your car is so suspicious, yet rednecks can ride around in their great-big, over-sized trucks, brandishing all kinds of high-powered weapons and ammo on full display - and police are like “yes, and what’s the problem?”
So, apparently - it turns out that if the cops say you’re guilty, that’s all we need to know. Terrific, I guess we can just go ahead and scrap our entire criminal justice system then - forget about “probable cause” and “innocent until proven guilty” - along with all that other silly stuff, and simply ask a cop “what they think about the matter.” It’lI sure save a lot of time, and I hear they’re known to have some rather interesting takes on criminal justice matters.
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