Get Out of Dodge – Update June 6, 2011

The Civil Court System Is Hopelessly Broken

Debtors Prison is Illegal - The United States Supreme Court in Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660 (1983), made it clear that courts cannot imprison an indigent person for failure to pay a criminal fine unless the failure to pay was “willful.” I do not think this is constitutional. The US Constitution does not directly speak directly to debtors prison. The Eighth Amendment seems to address it. This prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause applies to the states.The thirteenth amendment also has some relevance as you will see. This reads “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Too often, however, this constitutional rule is ignored. Six states, Arkansas, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Washington allow debt collectors to seek arrest warrants for debtors in default if all other collection methods have failed. How all other methods have failed is ill defined and arbitrary I am afraid. Tennessee and Oklahoma have ruled it unconstitutional unless the court finds that the debtor actually possesses the means to pay and won't —except in the case of child support

obligations. They not only put child support failure to pay people in jail, they take away their passports depriving them of their right to travel. They can also lose their right to drive. One third of the states allow a debtor to be thrown in jail if they fail to repay a court ordered debt or for failing to appear in court on a strictly debt related matter. In reality debtors prison is back and has gained popularity with the courts and collection lawyers.
Debtors Prison Prohibition Ignored and Corrupted – Some of you may not know that you can go to jail for civil debts in the USA. Oh yes you can and it is happening to thousands of people each year. This is a trend that is growing. Before we get into the legal mechanics of how this is possible, let's look at the debt industry. The economy is bad, real bad. People are not paying debts because they can not pay them. This is when the evil empire has a good time. They actually enjoy the people suffering, oh yes they do. They acquire a lot of assets in a depression. Eventually, they restore the economy with inflation and throw the people into another debt spiral. People start buying houses because they go up in value. They start borrowing and buying cars, clothes, taking vacations etc living above their means. Why? Because they are dumbed down and do not know any better. The banksters eventually repeat the cycle. This time something went off track. Obama the psychopath is ignoring the economy. Ponzi scheme quantitative easing is a nothing and will do nothing but make things worse. So we have a lot of consumer debt. This debt gets sold to bill collectors which are lawyers. They buy this debt for perhaps as little as 2% to 10% of the face amount depending on the nature of the debt and the credit worthiness of the debtor. These firms harass the people incessantly. Many will make payments if they can. Others will ignore them.
How the Process Evolves into a Criminal Arrest Warrant - The collection agency lawyer needs to get the debtor into the court system. They serve a summons on them and sue them. The people will often ignore the lawsuit. They figure they cannot win. Their credit is already shot. They cannot afford a lawyer. Ok the collection agency gets a judgment. Bear in mind this is an expensive game for the collection agency. They will spend $300 to $500 to get a judgement. Now they are committed. They will not spend this money unless they see some hope in collection. For example there might be a family who earns $70,000 a year combined income. They have a $2900 mortgage bill, two car payments totaling $1200, car insurance, a kid or two in college, medical insurance running $900, etc. They are spending everything they make and living week to week. The collection company reviewing their credit report will see them with time on the job and paying the house and car payments and think this is a prime candidate to go after. If we work on them aggressively they will divert money from their house and car payments to pay off this $5000 credit card bill that has been charged off. So they sue the people. The people ignore the lawsuit thinking what good will a judgment do the collection agency. The house and cars have negative equity and cannot be taken away. It is true that the collection lawyers can in some states garnish the wages of the people up to 25%. It is also true that the people can go down to the judge and argue they cannot afford the 25% garnishment by submitting financials without a lawyer. The collection agencies know this. The judge could reduce the payments significantly to the point where the administrative costs of collecting the payments erases any profit. The other problem is many states allow up to two wage garnishments. The employer can fire the employee if he sees garnishments. Please bear in mind if the collection lawyer gets a payment plan of say $95 a month from the court after the debtor pleads for a reduction in payment from the judge, this does not much for the lawyer. The lawyer knows in a given year he would be lucky if he got eight or nine of those payments. It is time consuming and expensive for him to go back to the judge and complain about missed payments. The judge will maintain that the court is not a collection agency. Ok so wage garnishment is not a great solution. So what do the collection lawyers do to extract money from people buried with debt and trying to keep their head above water. They have to present the debtor with a set of circumstances that they cannot ignore. Enter the arrest warrant tactic.
Debtor Arrest Warrants - What is done is the lawyer sets a hearing date for an order of examination. This comes after a debt is established, in other words there is already a judgment. This is called post judgment discovery. It can be done by sending by registered mail a set of interrogatories. These are questions the debtor has to answer about where their assets are. Questions will cover employment, banks, cars, real estate, stocks, bonds, valuables etc. Of course when these are sent out by the lawyer they tend to be ignored. If there is a lousy court system in place this alone can lead to an arrest warrant for failing to comply. Not common but being done in some instances. Of course the debtor would have had to sign for the mail or get served in person for this to work. It would be a contempt of court warrant for failing to comply. If the debtor fills them out and lies then he can go up on criminal fraud. Whoops now the debtor is in the criminal system because he lied or he did not fill the forms out and return them. The collection lawyer would use bank records, public records, credit report info to show the court that the debtor lied when filling out the form. This is a fraud and criminal. Then the lawyer pushes a criminal case which he drops if the debt and his bill is paid. Nice cheap tactic. So let's say the people ignore the forms in a more judicious legal system. Ok so he sends them a second time with proof of delivery or service. Now he goes to the court and shows he tried twice and got no answer. He sets a date for the debtor to appear in court to be examined. He serves the debtor with a process server or notifies by registered mail. Here is the corruption. The lawyer may send the papers to the wrong address. Someone may sign for them there out of ignorance. Or the process servers just hands them to any adult that opens the door. Sometimes if he knows there is an adult in the house he can leave them at the door. This constitutes good service in many places. In the old days the judge would insist that a sheriff serve the notice to appear papers before he would issue a warrant. The sheriff would make sure he had the right house and people. Today the Sheriffs are too busy and the courts are also too busy. The courts work with the lawyers, not the people. The system is hopelessly broken and there has been no justice or constitution for many years. Now the debtor has been served with a notice to appear in court and he has no idea that this has been done. Of course the date comes and he is a no show and now a bench warrant is issued for his arrest. So one day the debtor gets picked up at a traffic stop, a homeland security checkpoint, border crossing, renewing his driver license etc and winds up in jail. What a great way to get the debtor to pay off the debt to get out of jail. An astute debtor can retain counsel, show the judge service was not made at the correct address and then get the warrant dropped and get out of jail. Whoops when the debtor is appearing to quash the no show warrant, the collection attorney will ask the judge if he can examine the debtor since they are both there together. If the judge goes for this which is very likely, then the judge instructs the debtor to go into the hall and answer all the attorney's questions or the judge will hold the debtor in contempt. The lawyer will ask things like what bank do you use, your account number, how much money is there, where do you work, how much to you make, where do you live, where are your cars right now, and let us not forget how much cash do you have on you now and then ask the judge to make him turn the cash over to the lawyer. The arrest warrant game means a likely payday for the collection lawyer.
Court Payment Orders - In some states a judge can order a debtor to repay a debt. We would hope the court determines the potential for repayment is possible. If the person does not pay the debt then an order to show cause could be issued. This means the person has to show the court why they should not be held in contempt of court. If they fail to show for this they will get held in contempt of court and go into the criminal system. This is often used in child support and alimony cases but has been recently expanded to ordinary debts like credit cards debts. A person fails to make a few payments. They ex spouse files for them to be held in contempt and an order to show cause is issued. The other party shows up and says oh I lost my job, here is my financial statement, here is what I can pay, I am seeking work, etc. Then the judge modifies the order to pay by reducing the amount, suspending the payments for a period etc. This is when things were more sane. Now they are throwing people into the criminal system very quickly for unpaid debts.
USA Prison System – Let's take a brief look at the prison system in the USA for some insights as to why we are seeing debtors prison returning with vigor. The prison industry is very profitable. There are millions of people working in the prison system for private industry at a pittance. By a pittance we mean $0.17 an hour to a high of $0.50 an hour. Private industry using prison labor has no labor unions or strikes. There are no employee benefits to pay like medical coverage, workers compensation, unemployment, overtime, vacations, etc. The work force shows up on time. Bad weather, traffic etc do not prevent people from reporting on time. No monday flu. If the workers do not work they lose privileges and can even wind up in solitary or on a special diet. The US has locked up more people than any other nation. Corporations profiteering off of the prison system lobby for longer sentencing. They will disguise their efforts to look like civic minded groups. They will also seek to see people imprisoned for new crimes. Remember seeing politicians introduce bills to incarcerate people for things that are not crimes at that time. Now you know why at least in part. The more people in jail the better business is. The private jail corporations will also lobby for longer sentences and more crimes to be on the books. The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing profitable industries in the United States. This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade shows and conventions. They have their own advertising campaigns, architecture companies to build the prisons that are conducive to the industry, construction companies to build such prisons, investment bankers to raise the needed capital, food supply companies to feed the inmates (think GMO garbage), armed private corrections officers, etc. According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people. So the psychopathic idiots have found a way to compete with China. They just need to expand the prison population and that brings us to debtors prison.
Inmate Classifications and Numbers - Ninety three percent to ninety-seven percent of federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. Figures vary according to different surveys but the point is made. We call this political crimes. If you did not damage or steal private property or harm an individual, it is not a common law crime, it is a political crime. It is believed that more than half of the inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of because they are awaiting trial. The wait can run into years on a major offense and many cannot afford to make bail so they sit in jail. Bail can be $150 and if the person has no way of getting it he can sit in jail for a year easily. This can cost up to $50,000. Two-thirds of the state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country's more than 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.
The US has about 2.4 million people incarcerated now. China which is four times larger in population has about half the prison population. There are over four million people on probation in addition to those in jail. There are over 800,000 on parole. Probation generally means supervised release instead of going to jail. No prison work force additions with probation. Parole means early release from jail into a supervised parole program. Over 400,000 people work in the corrections industry. It is a big business at the expense of “we the people”. Most of these people do not deserve to be in jail.
Summary – Quietly, the fallen government has been profiteering by incarcerating people for just about anything. Those profiteering off of this have been lobbying for more criminal statues and longer sentences. This is like the auto insurance companies giving the police laser and radar guns which they do with vigor every year. Now they are starting to incarcerate people for not paying debts. Some of you are waiting for the government to impose martial law. Why would they need to do that? The people really offer no resistance, just grumblings on forums and blogs. The government lets this go on because the people get to vent, blow off some steam and get the illusion they are freer than they are. The mainstream media likes to tell the people what is wrong but offer no solution of any sort. Every see Beck, O'Reilly or say Alex Jones ever say leave the country while you can? I never once saw this. You see that is a beneficial action plan which is something they never offer. In the early to mid 1930's Hitler was encouraging his foes to leave, not just the Jews but many others. He ultimately put into concentration camps Priests, Clergy, Gypsies, Communists, Socialists, and his political enemies. You may not know this but hundreds of thousand of these categories of people did leave. You should leave too while you can. How many more signs do you need to wait for? The USA is hopelessly broken. Look at how the tea party sold out and renewed the patriot act which is most unconstitutional. This by definition makes the tea party liars since they might read the constitution, they do not respect it or follow it. There is always going to be some false hope candidate or party out there to attract the dissidents making them think there is hope. Problem is very few of the people in the USA understand the problem or care enough to do anything about it. They are sitting home thinking how fortunate they are that they have food and a roof over their head. Let me give you a famous quote from Martin Niemoller. He was a protestant pastor who opposed Hitler and spent seven years in a concentration camp.
This is what he (he was not a Jew) said:
” First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Let me put this in perspective. Unemployment breeds more unemployment. When people lose their job they cut their spending and thus in time more people lose their jobs. What if you lose your job and then you can't pay your bills and wind up in debtors jail. Get the idea.
There were people in and around Nazi Germany who felt they could not afford to leave. They had businesses. They had family ties, friends, history there, etc. How did they fare when it was over? Did those that left come out ahead? Were those that left eventually able to return when it was over? Was it worth the sacrifice they made to leave? There is no perfect country to go to. It is always going to be uncomfortable to leave. It is always expensive to leave. It is always going to be a compromise to leave.
Let's assume I am an alarmist and over reacting to these events like the insane prison population violation of rights, fiat money, federal reserve bank ponzi scheme, poor economy, psychopathic President, euthanasia in ObamaCare, GMO food, Vaccines, endless wars, TSA molestation of children and women, endless efforts to control and confiscate guns, the endless war on drugs, the insane high tax rates with no benefits, the banksters, illegal laws, sellout politicians, rich lobbyists, corrupt courts, tasers, swat team killings when executing warrants, etc. Please convince me I am wrong about the USA. If I get any sort of credible arguments I will publish them as a rebuttal. I suggest you seriously leave and wait this one out if you can all do so. It is going to get increasingly ugly. I expect hyper inflation. I expect confiscation or forced buy back of gold. A plummeting dollar. More unemployment. Civil disobedience. More and more TSA incursions into human decency. It will be ugly and for what? The people at large are not going to wake up, or they already would have.