Here's to the State of Mississippi

Jeffrey over at The Library Chronicles came across the aptly titled Pic article, HIGHWAY ROBBERY? (it could stand to lose the question mark).

When Atiya Saleh saw the flashing lights of a squad car pull up behind his Ford sedan on Interstate 55 near Brookhaven, Miss., he didn't think twice about the $27,000 in cash in a plastic grocery bag in the trunk.

He and his business partner, fellow Palestinian immigrant Shareef Quattom, had received the money that morning from a Jackson merchant as a down payment for their corner grocery store in New Orleans. The men were traveling to Jackson with the buyer, Jordanian immigrant Majed Atta, to help him move some of his belongings to New Orleans. Saleh didn't think there was anything strange -- or illegal -- about carrying that much money in his car.

But Mississippi officials did.

Though Saleh and his partner carried papers documenting the business deal that required the $27,000 and though all three men are in compliance with U.S. work and residency rules, they were held for seven hours during which they were subjected to a strip search, drug-sniffing dogs and interrogation by local and federal officials.

But what Saleh and Quattom deemed the most outrageous indignity took place upon their release, at 5 a.m. the next day: Although the sheriff's department found no drugs or any other basis to charge them with a crime, officials told the partners they were going to keep their money anyway in case they could link it to illegal activity. The only offense any of the men was booked with that night: careless driving.

"They know it is not drug money, they know it is not terrorist money," Saleh said. "They know that in their hearts. But they want to hurt us the worst way they can, legally, because we are Arabs."

Nearly three months after they were detained in Mississippi, Saleh and Quattom have yet to be charged with any crime. But to their mounting anger and dismay, their $27,000 is still in Lincoln County.

The entire article is a little on the long side, but if you have a chance, by all means take a look. By the way--believe it or not, Saleh doesn't think race was an initial motivating factor. It was at night, which would make it difficult to see who was driving. However, the car had out of state plates.

I tend to agree with his assessment. Fortunately, I've never been stopped for any moving violation in the Magnolia State, but you can be damn sure I'm paying pretty careful attention to things like posted speed limits, fog lines, center lines, and whatnot. At the same time, I'll bet once it was determined that the out-of-staters were also ferrigners, the cops probably considered it a very nice target of opportunity.

Also, as Jeffrey notes, Mississippi has a law that allows for the seizure of cash on the mere SUSPICION it was obtained through illegal activity. Then, if no attempt is made to claim said cash after 30 days, it's added to the local budget. In other words, the officers must have thought they'd just got themselves a brand new Crown Vic.

Not so fast. The men in question aren't going to take this lying down:

Quattom and Saleh, who already have spent $2,500 on legal fees to reclaim their money, said they won't back down until they win.

"I will pay $25,000 to get $2,000 back -- but I will not leave a penny for those sons of bitches," Saleh said. "Because it was clear from the first minute that they were going to try their best to take this money. Nothing else was a concern to them."

Good for them.