I wonder if all these rogue PD's around the country each qualify for an indictment under RICOH? That's a federal anti-racketeering law. And clearly, this trend is nothing but a fucking racket. Violent armed car jacking/home invasions/business venue invasions, property and money theft/"seizure", demanding money in lieu of court proceedings, etc. The entire MO is precisely the same as an organized gang, whether the perpetrators wear a badge or not.
Unfortunately it's generally considered legal. Or as some would say , policy.
Personal horror story was when a friend of mine who frequently borrowed my car (was even on my insurance) was stopped in Byrne's Mill, Missouri.
He had thought a red light had turned green and started but stopped again when he saw it was still red. He was halfway in the intersection and started to back up but there was a cop there.
Next thing there are 12 cop cars and my friend is being charged with auto theft which eventually went down to "failure to register" even though it wasn't his car. He was handcuffed on the curb as the cops searched my car. According to the cops, this was because my friend had a "level 2 caution". For the longest time we tried to figure out why he would have any caution with police on file. It was weeks later that we discovered that there is no such thing as a level 2 caution. It's meaningless. (which is why I get cynical when someone brings up police "policy". Cops are perfectly capable of lying just like any other group of human beings)
Anyway, they confiscated the car, took off my license plates. I had to pay 80 bucks to get the car out of impound.
The cops still kept my plates, claiming the car was not registered to my friend (and why should it be when it was MY car) the cops were total dicks about this... UNTIL I had my other friend who's a lawyer call.
The cops suddenly got real polite when they heard my friend say "this is Mr. Whatley's attorney". They gave back the plates. Funny though they never gave back the money I had to give them to get my car back.
Anyway, Byrne's Mill eventually lost it's police force. There were so many complaints that the state disbanded them. They eventually got it back. No idea if it's still as bad.
sadly with the combo of police depts buying military gear and local budgets getting squeezed, I'm not sure my story would be repeated if it happened today.