Assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell gave a speech in which he urged banks to “alert law enforcement authorities about the problem” so that police can “seize the funds” or at least “initiate an investigation”.How do you know you live in a police state? That's a pretty good working definition right there.
As Black highlights, according to the handbook for the Federal Financial Institution Examination Council, such suspicious activity includes, “Transactions conducted or attempted by, at, or through the bank (or an affiliate) and aggregating $5,000 or more…”
Imagine going to your local bank to get some cash; for a specific purchase or just because you want to have some cash on hand. You tell the teller that you’d like to withdraw $5,000 from your account. She hesitates nervously and wants to know why.
You try to politely let her know that that’s none of the bank’s business as it’s your money.
The teller disappears for a few minutes, leaving you waiting.
When she returns she tells you that you can collect your money in a few days as they don’t have it on hand at the moment.
Slightly irritated because of the inconvenience, you head home.
But as you pull into your driveway later there’s an unexpected surprise waiting for you: two police officers would like to have a word with you about your intended withdrawal earlier…
With today's prices $5000 isn't an extreme amount of cash. I've had plumbing damage to my house that cost more than that to repair (leak from a dishwasher in the kitchen that required stripping to bare concrete and rebuilding). Maybe you want to buy a used car, or pay your plumber for a major fix in cash. Sure, most people use a credit card or check for that, but shouldn't that be your choice?
According to Black, federal regulations REQUIRE banks to file ‘suspicious activity reports’ or SARs on their customers. The thing is, 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. So they have strong incentives to fill out SARs on anyone at any time.
SHTFPlan.com adds some more essential details. He ties it to the horror of civil forfeiture, which I've written about several times here (for example), Confessions of a Street Pharmacist has, The Daily Sheeple and a lot of other people as well. They conclude with:
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:With the central reserve banks causing all sorts of distortions in the market, there's lots of talk about the negative interest rates spreading from bonds to banks - the ECB itself went to negative interest a year ago. People are understandably uneasy about leaving money in places where it can get
Saw a comment by Matt Bracken: BLOAT - buy lots of ammo today.
ReplyDeleteMy main savings account-at a federal savings bank-has a six-transaction limit on withdrawals from the savings account in any one month. Supposedly a federal regulation forces the bank to change your savings account into a checking account if you exceed those six transactions in one monthly cycle.
In medieval England robbers often would accost travelers on the kings highway and rob them or worse. These robbers were called "highway men" by the locals The king didn't like the competition so he decreed that some of his soldiers would travel the roads and "protect" his loyal subjects. The soldiers were pooly paid and some would take advantage of their position to rob the very same travelers that they were supposed to protect. After awhile the label "highwaymen" came to be used to describe the kings men. Our police have for decades used traffic laws to rob people on the public highway. Some years back in the war on drugs confiscation laws were written to allow money suspected of being used to buy drugs or profit from selling drugs was siezed extra-judicially. At first this wasn't abused but after awhile the kings men became the modern highwaymen robbing travelers and even taking people's homes. It has gotten so bad that it makes bank robbers look honest. What we need is a modern day Robinhood.
ReplyDeleteDo you know where the "Law Enforcement" live in your neighborhood? And have you made plans to deal with them appropriately? Or do you STILL fail to understand that, without their support, this sh!+ would not occur?
ReplyDeleteI have a city policeman that lives three houses away and parks a city police car in his driveway. I don't know him but I'm glad he's there. I may run into him sometime and introduce myself as his nieghbor. I like the police and firemen and doctors and nurses and the military and the many I have missed who work hard to help others. It is the politicans and many activists and cronies behind the scenes that are the problem. Vote! Vote for or against someone. That's the only viable solution to our problems.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, but we should all be surfing and posting comments to these subversive blogs using Tor. The more Tor traffic the better, it ain't perfect but it's better than nothing.
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