Gestapo forces in the State of Louisiana (the Governor and State Legislature, that is) have banned cash transactions with "secondhand dealers,” defined as anyone, other than a non-profit entity, who buys, sells, trades in or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person, other than a non-profit entity.
Cash is no longer king in Louisiana. The law requires that payment must be made in the form of a check, electronic transfer, or money order issued to the seller.
So cash – good old United States legal tender for all debts public and private – is not legal in Louisiana to buy used pots and pans at a neighborhood flea market. Little kids trading marbles in their elementary school yard during recess in Louisiana are violating the law if they use pennies to complete the transactions.
And that’s not all. Every transaction requires a list of personal information from both parties be turned over to the local policing authorities on a daily basis; name, address, detailed description of the item(s) involved in the sale, driver's license number and the license plate number of the vehicle in which the goods were delivered, for example.
If the kid selling marbles refuses to produce to the other kid buyer (“secondhand dealer”) any of the required forms of identification and other information, that kid is prohibited from completing the transaction. If he completes it with cash, he’s a criminal under the law.
All individuals and businesses involved in the selling and buying used goods are forced to report their routine business activity to the police, no matter what. In short, the authorities are forcing innocent buyers and sellers to become police informants whether they want to or not.
The authorities apparently want to crack down on criminal activities in stolen goods, but any fool knows that the criminals will go right on transacting their business in cash right under the noses of the authorities while the innocent are burdened into compliance with this ridiculous law at the cost of their individual privacy, civil liberty and freedom..
But guess who is exempt from this ham handed, and probably unconstitutional law? Pawnshops! That’s right, pawnshops can still deal in cash in Louisiana while a housewife is deemed a common criminal if she buys some used baby clothes at a neighborhood garage sale with cash.
Who says the heartland of America isn’t slowly turning into a police state?
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