Civil asset forfeiture violates the plain language of the Fifth Amendment: “[N]or shall any person…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” (Isn’t the plain, simple, and concise language of the Constitution refreshing? It makes you wonder why and how its been torn to shreds.) Here’s an article from Michael Krieger, at libertyblitzkrieg.com, that illustrates the evils of civil asset forfeiture:
All the money – $16,000 in cash – that Joseph Rivers said he had saved and relatives had given him to launch his dream in Hollywood is gone, seized during his trip out West not by thieves but by Drug Enforcement Administration agents during a stop at the Amtrak train station in Albuquerque.
Rivers, 22, wasn’t detained and has not been charged with any crime since his money was taken last month.
That doesn’t matter. Under a federal law enforcement tool called civil asset forfeiture, he need never be arrested or convicted of a crime for the government to take away his cash, cars or property – and keep it.
Rivers was left penniless, his dream deferred.
From the Albuquerque Journal article: DEA to Traveler: Thanks, I’ll Take That Cash
In the “land of the free” you might be innocent until proven guilty, but your assets aren’t.
In one of the most uncivilized and preposterous loopholes in America, federal agents are allowed to steal citizens’ assets; cars, cash, even homes, based on suspicion alone. I’ve covered this barbaric and backward practice on many occasions, but here’s a quick refresher from the first post I wrote on the subject in 2013, Why You Should Never, Ever Drive Through Tenaha, Texas:
In a nutshell, civil forfeiture is the practice of confiscating items from people, ranging from cash, cars, even homes based on no criminal conviction or charges, merely suspicion. This practice first became widespread for use against pirates, as a way to take possession of contraband goods despite the fact that the ships’ owners in many cases were located thousands of miles away and couldn’t easily be prosecuted. As is often the case, what starts out reasonable becomes a gigantic organized crime ring of criminality, particularly in a society where the rule of law no longer exists for the “elite,” yet anything goes when it comes to pillaging the average citizen.
One of the major reasons these programs have become so abused is that the police departments themselves are able to keep much of the confiscated money. So they actually have a perverse incentive to steal. As might be expected, a program that is often touted as being effective against going after major drug kingpins, actually targets the poor and disenfranchised more than anything else.
To continue reading: The DEA Strikes Again
