Civil forfeiture

[FluffyMcDeath]

Civil forfeiture is when your property is arrested and you have to prove that it is innocent else the cops get to keep it.

I remember when this was being introduced and as usual (because we didn't have terrorists back then - except for the occasional lone nut of course) it was because of the "War on Drugs". Many sensible people at that time thought it sounded like a perfectly awful idea.

There are now versions of this in many jurisdictions (we have such a thing in BC) but some jurisdictions are downright awful, being pretty much - we take your stuff - prove it's legit. If you can afford the $10,000 legal fees and wait three years then maybe you'll get your car back.

This video is produced by the Institute for Justice which is a Libertarian legal organization.

While I agree with the general thrust that civil asset forfeiture is bad I'm that, before we get rid of it, can we maybe use it to confiscate all the money that Wall St made in it's giant Ponzi fraud?

 

[Wayne]

It's a pretty well-known theory that a lot of municipalities are starting to rely on the (ab)use of civil forfeiture to help stem the losses from lowered tax incomes during the recession.

While on the surface, I agree with the idea that "if a drug dealer gets caught with a weed farm in his closet, he should lose the closet", it becomes infinitely easier to accuse someone of a crime when there's a perceived benefit from being able to steal their possessions out from under them.

Then you get the 1 out of 100 bad cops who will actually plant something illegal in someone's car or house just so they can take it at auction...

Then you get places like Huntsville who actually hire people full-time to drive around in $50,000 4x4 diesel trucks, in order to write $325.00 court summons for people who don't mow their grass to their liking.

Wayne