Is civil asset forfeiture being used to balance police and government budgets?
Article first appeared in natural news.com:
If you've never heard of "civil forfeiture laws," you're about to get an eye-opening education. What's more, you're going to be disappointed that far too many local police departments - maybe even your own - are using these laws to rip off innocent citizens and help fund their own operations.
Every year, federal and state law enforcement agents seize millions of dollars from civilians during traffic stops, simply by asserting that they believe the money is connected to some illegal activity and without ever pursuing criminal charges. Under federal law and the laws of most states, they are entitled to keep most (and sometimes all) of the money and property they seize.
"The protections our Constitution usually affords are out the window," Louis Rulli, a clinical law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading forfeiture expert, says.
Property doesn't have the same rights as a person. There is no right to an attorney and, in the majority of states, there is no "innocent until proven guilty." You can tell that just by the title of the court cases: United States v. One Pearl Necklace and United States v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins.
Police have their victims at a distinct disadvantage in a number of ways. First, they have the guns and badges. Second, civil asset forfeiture doesn't have to meet the standard of "probable cause" (it barely reached the level of "reasonable suspicion"). And third, they know that, oftentimes, hiring a lawyer and taking the department to court would far exceed the cost of the confiscated money and valuables.
"Washington, D.C., charges up to twenty-five hundred dollars simply for the right to challenge a police seizure in court, which can take months or even years to resolve," Silverman writes - and this is in a city overwhelmingly dominated by "fair-minded" liberals.
In fact, Silverman explains, the D.C. system has impoverished hundreds of poor citizens caught in this civil forfeiture nightmare. Cops there will confiscate anything and everything - including the automobiles these people use to get back and forth to low-paying, menial labor jobs (another sad but true fact about "progressive" D.C.). It is so bad there, in fact, that the city's Public Defender Service has filed suit on behalf of 375 car-owners, calling the city P.D.'s policy "devastating for hundreds of families who depend on their cars for many of the urgent and important tasks of daily life."
Astonishingly, many police departments defend this abomination.
"We all know the way things are right now - budgets are tight," Steve Westbrook, the executive director of the Sheriffs' Association of Texas, told Silverman.
"It's definitely a valuable asset to law enforcement, for purchasing equipment and getting things you normally wouldn't be able to get to fight crime," he said.
Other officers said, if the practice of civil forfeiture becomes too heavily regulated to use, their departments would collapse economically - and, of course, that would endanger public safety (can you say fearmongering).
Per Silverman:
But a system that proved successful at wringing profits from drug cartels and white-collar fraudsters has also given rise to corruption and violations of civil liberties. Over the past year, I spoke with more than a hundred police officers, defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, and forfeiture plaintiffs from across the country. Many expressed concern that state laws designed to go after high-flying crime lords are routinely targeting the workaday homes, cars, cash savings, and other belongings of innocent people who are never charged with a crime.
This pathetic use of the law amounts to little more than legalized theft. If a private citizen were to do something like this, he or she would go to jail.
Civil forfeiture in the case of a convicted criminal is one thing; stealing from innocent people to fund your police department is quite another.
And quite despicable.
http://www.naturalnews.com/041828_cops_innocent_civilians_civil_forfeiture.html
Civil asset forfeiture dealt a blow in MA. will other states take notice?
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2013/03/civil-asset-forfeiture-dealt-blow-in-ma.html
Civil asset forfeiture fund proceeds are up $1.6 billion and growing as police & prosecutors profit:
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2013/01/georgias-civil-forfeiture-laws-are.html
Civil asset forfeiture tramples citizens rights while filling state's coffers:
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2012/11/civil-asset-forfeiture-tramples.html