Civil forfeiture is the government practice of taking property from citizens without due process, but while pretending that it’s all above-board. When police say they suspect a crime, they can impound property associated with that crime. “Civil forfeiture” is the legal legerdemain: instead of suing the owner, the government sues (get this) the property itself.
And, because of this trickery, burden of proof is inverted: victims must prove their innocence and their right to the impounded property.
Generally, governments keep it. Some police departments are “rolling in the dough” they get from impounding property.
This has been known for some time; I’ve written about it before. But now the Washington Post has finally taken notice
and unearthed a new element to the story.
“Behind the rise in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the techniques of ‘highway interdiction’ to departments across the country,” the Post’s report relates. There’s even a private intelligence network, the Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System, through which police “share detailed reports about American motorists — criminals and the innocent alike — including their Social Security numbers, addresses and identifying tattoos, as well as hunches about which drivers to stop.”
Participating police officers compete to steal more and more booty from drivers and their passengers.
Yes, it is stealing. It is only nominally “legal.”
Unfortunately, it is only one practice among many that have turned local police departments into the moral equivalent of gangland robbers.
If you say you want limited government, this is an issue ripe for protest. And lobbying for reform. And citizen initiatives.
For starters.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “Thieves With Badges”
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Civil forfeiture is an abomination which indeed provides significant moral risk in its application, and because the police and courts are no less human that the accused, has caused improper (unenlightened or short sighted self-interest) abuses.
It is, in my opinion, a violation of the US and most state constitutions. What part of not taking life, liberty or property without due process of law didn’t the legislative and judicial branches understand? Seems pretty straight forward language to me, indeed much like the Second Amendment.
“Suing” the property is a ruse, as it is a primary legal theory that all property is owned by someone, or something.
Hope you make some headway here. Hollywood is a willing participant with all the police glorifying tv shows you see. They seem to love to show the cop who steps over the line “but for the right reason”. All it does is fuel the psychopath cop who needs cover for overstepping his bounds.
Seems like they could single-handidly steer public perception if they would only focus on the issue.
Paul and Rick:
The underlying problem is the governments’ (and citizens’)refusal to acknowledge that the “good” result cannot excuse by itself the action taken to procure it, i.e. the end cannot justify the means.
Truths never change, but that does not keep many from ignoring them, always to their long term detriment.
This is nothing less than theft under color of law.