Judge refuses return of confiscated good to Pitchfork Records

[KBCraig]

We just talked about police confiscating cash as "drug money" without any evidence of a crime being committed.

And now this. Michael Gannon even gets mentioned.

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Police+property%3a+It%e2%80%99s+finders+keepers+in+NH&articleId=c2807a58-75ed-4972-8ab9-caec6bbbb979

Police property: It?s finders keepers in NH

The state Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the government can keep and destroy more than 500 CDs taken from Michael Cohen, owner of Pitchfork Records in Concord, in 2003 even though the state failed to prove that a single disk was illegal.

Cohen was arrested for attempting to sell bootleg recordings. But the police case collapsed when it turned out that most of the recordings were made legally. Police dropped six of the seven charges, and Cohen went to trial on one charge. He beat it after the judge concluded that the recording was legal.

However, the police refused to return Cohen?s CDs. In the state Supreme Court?s Tuesday ruling, Chief Justice John Broderick, writing for the majority, reasoned so poorly that it appeared as if he?d made up his mind ahead of time.

Dissenting, Justice Linda Dalianis wrote, perceptively, that ?the majority does not explain how statutes prohibiting the production, publication, or sale of certain works render possession of such works unlawful.?

Further, Dalianis concluded that ?the state?s failure to establish in any way that the seized property constitutes contraband? made it impossible to justify keeping Cohen?s property.

Indeed, the majority?s reasoning is chilling. The majority concedes that no crime or illegal act was proven, but allows the confiscation anyway by concluding that a crime might have been committed. The majority used words such as ?apparently,? ?likely? and ?would have? to describe the alleged illegal activity.

It should go without saying that speculation by a few judges that a crime might have been committed is a frightening basis for taking someone?s property.

Earlier this year, Nashua police confiscated video recordings of two officers being rude to a citizen at his own home. Though police dropped all charges against Michael Gannon and admitted they could not prove the recordings were illegal, they still kept the tapes.

If someone is found with cocaine or any other item clearly illegal to possess, confiscation is easily justified. But the illegality of these items was never proven, and mere possession was not itself illegal.

If the government can seize and keep a citizen?s property by simply asserting that it is contraband, even when the assertion is unsupported by the facts, then we have entered into dangerous territory.

[Fluff and Stuff]

(Around where I live, people know that cops in AR stop people just to see if they have any money, and then take the money.  Of course, AR cops are also know for selling drugs and such.  Hell, they have even been known to follow people into TN, kill them, and then act like nothing happened.)

[tracysaboe]

I dugg it
http://digg.com/politics/Police_property_It_s_finders_keepers_in_NH

Yeah Kevin. 

Tracy

[KBCraig]

I dugg it
http://digg.com/politics/Police_property_It_s_finders_keepers_in_NH

Yeah Kevin. 

Tracy

Oh, I'm all over you, bee-yatch! I dun dugg my stuff right up in yo face!

*gack*

Sorry. I was chanelling my wife there for a second or two. I'm biblinglish.

Kevin

[Lloyd Danforth]

(Around where I live, people know that cops in AR stop people just to see if they have any money, and then take the money.  Of course, AR cops are also know for selling drugs and such.  Hell, they have even been known to follow people into TN, kill them, and then act like nothing happened.)

All the way from Arizona to Tennesee?  Doesn't seem like it would be very profitable.

[Braddogg]

(Around where I live, people know that cops in AR stop people just to see if they have any money, and then take the money.  Of course, AR cops are also know for selling drugs and such.  Hell, they have even been known to follow people into TN, kill them, and then act like nothing happened.)

All the way from Arizona to Tennesee?  Doesn't seem like it would be very profitable.

Arkansas.  Arizona is AZ.

[FTL_Ian]

And cops wonder why people hate them.   

[tracysaboe]

I dugg it
http://digg.com/politics/Police_property_It_s_finders_keepers_in_NH

Yeah Kevin. 

Tracy

Oh, I'm all over you, bee-yatch! I dun dugg my stuff right up in yo face!

*gack*

Sorry. I was chanelling my wife there for a second or two. I'm biblinglish.

Kevin

Tracy

[John]

This is bad - and HAS TO CHANGE!


http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Police+property%3a+It%e2%80%99s+finders+keepers+in+NH&articleId=c2807a58-75ed-4972-8ab9-caec6bbbb979

[Kat Kanning]

I love the name of that place.

[John]

I was going to post this tonight and don't you know Free Talk Live just opened with it.
Call FTL @ 1-800-259-9231 (7-10p.m.)

[citizen_142002]

That's a terrible ruling. So what happened to the burden of proof being on the state?
I think that the things are going, the legal system will be able to accuse people on suspicion. Guilty until proven innocent, and even then we'll jail you if we want.

[John]

I love the name of that place.

Nice picture to.   

I got on to FTL at the end of the first hour, and predicted that in NH this BS  WILL change . . . I also talked about the FACT that things are already changeing . . .
As always, I'm wellcomeing other listeners to come HOME . . .They said I'm "persuasive" . . . (who me? persuasive?)

[FTL_Ian]

It's your level of excitement.. it's infectious!

[John]

If anyone cares to support this victim of police/government abuse, you will find the store only about one/or two blocks south of the state house on the main street (on the east side.)
I have not been there yet, but thought I kind of liked the place - just based on the name - from the first time I spotted it.