OFF THE WIRE
It's totally illegal but cops have been arresting people anyway when
they are late on repaying their "Payday" cash advance loans.
Payday businesses unlawfully file over 1,500 criminal complaints
against those who have borrowed from them, and police are complicit in
these false reports and arrests.
Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit organization that describes itself as “helping vulnerable Texans for the
past 19 years” says
that they have documented so many abuses by payday lenders and cops
that they had no choice but to recently file a complaint with state and
federal regulators of the payday loan industry.
This comes after data was obtained showing that Texas borrowers have been facing threats of
“criminal prosecution, arrest warrants, court appearances, jail time and fines stemming from the
industry’s illegal practice of using the criminal justice system to collect on debts.”
Lenders are free to file civil cases, but criminal cases for defaults on loans amount to illegal debtors’ prisons.
“In addition to their outrageous rates and lending practices, payday loan businesses are illegally
using the criminal justice system to coerce repayment from borrowers,” Ann Baddour,
director of the Fair Financial Services Project at Texas Appleseed said.
“This directly contravenes state and federal law, which eliminated
debtor’s prisons long ago. In fact, Texas’ Bill of Rights guarantees
that ‘No person shall ever be imprisoned for debt.’”
Still, Texan cops have been complicit in these illegal and unconstitutional arrests and imprisonments.
Read the complaint here and help us SPREAD THE WORD so these corrupted and complicit criminal cops don’t continue to get away with this!
(Article by Jackson Marciana)
