Cars and Terrorism

Back to the Future car

                Today, Susan didn’t have any work for me to do, so she loaned me out to the forfeiture division of the Marshal’s office. The forfeiture division takes care of all objects seized from criminals. These objects range from jewelry, to cars, to houses. Every item was bought with illegal money (usually drug money) so while the criminal is taken to trial, the objects become the property of the government. Patty, the head of the forfeiture division, had me file payment receipts for the cars’ care. The Marshal’s office has literally hundreds of seized cars that all must be cared for so they don’t lose value. Most of the cars are just expensive cars (Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, etc.), but there are a few cool ones. The office possess the Ghost Buster’s van, the car from Back to the Future, and the Batmobile. These aren’t knockoffs; they are the literal cars from the movies.

Knife used in threats

The judge said it was big enough to, "kill a cow"

                After helping out the forfeiture office, I watched court. The most exciting case was a sentencing for terrorism. Not ISIS terrorism, domestic terrorism.  The criminal was actually a Chinese citizen here on a visa. He’s twenty-nine, has a masters, and a fulltime job as a software engineer. He had no criminal history (which isn’t surprising because criminals aren’t usually granted US Visas), and he got married in June. Soon after his marriage he began threatening his wife. He threatened to bomb their church. He sent her a picture of a large knife and said he was going to cut off her arms and legs with it. He threatened to bring a rifle and kill her and everyone else in the casino where she worked. He actually did a dry run at the casino and got a semi-automatic rifle through security. His wife was so terrified she couldn’t even come to the sentencing, instead her statement was read by the prosecution. She had to move to a different state, and because of fear that he would find her she has started balding. The judge, before sentencing, gave a large speech about the importance of threatening shooting at this time in our country. The judge sentenced him to seventeen months in prison and then deportation. He said he would have given more had it not been for the deportation.