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by encoderer
4896 days ago
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I'm not declaring the guy guilty. I'm saying that your class-warfare based dismissal is silly. Really, if you've spent much time in a city, you've seen street-level drug trafficking and prostitution. It's not hard to spot. But again, you take this to the absurd. This is not about rockstars ODing at the St. Regis, and it's not about strip searching people before you give them a room. This is about a gov't lawsuit that contended that the motel owner, like anybody else paying attention, could spot this illicit activity and not only failed to ask these guests to leave but also continued renting them rooms! That his property was a blight on the neighborhood. That he had been negligent. The DOJ obviously didn't prove those points to a preponderance of evidence, but I think your reaction here is wanting. I'm not one for internet debates, so go ahead and have the last word. I chimed in because if somebody just reads the lede in a case like this it sounds awful and unamerican: Private property can be taken for crimes he didn't himself commit? What! But IMO (and in current civil forfeiture law and judicial precedent) there is sound reasoning behind cases like this. Businessmen have had a legal obligation to maintain order and actively cooperate with law enforcement going back through 300 years of common law. CF laws need reform, but I'm of the opinion that this case is NOT the poster child for that cause that you're making it out to be. |
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> the Government has identified only a limited number of isolated qualifying drug-related incidents spread out over the course of more than a decade, none of which involve the Motel owner or employees
> Based on the evidence presented and my observation of the witnesses during trial, I find that Mr. Caswell is appropriately concerned with the events that take place at the Motel and that he recognizes that it is in his interest and in the interest of his family to operate as safe an enterprise as possible.
> Motel employees, including maids and desk clerks, have called the police on a number of occasions to report suspicious activity.
> Mr. Caswell has called the police on a number of occasions to report suspicious activity.
You say:
"The DOJ obviously didn't prove those points to a preponderance of evidence"
But the DOJ did not merely fail to prove anything. They were completely full of shit, and they went after this guy because they thought they could get away with it. It is as clear as daylight if you actually read the documents and not a bunch of pro-government rants on hacker news.