Posted on 02/22/2019 4:01:08 PM PST by Twotone
The law of civil forfeiture allows police and prosecutors to seize and keep cash, cars, homes, businesses and property of all kinds without ever criminally charging or convicting the owners. As originally conceived, it was to be a deterrent by which law enforcement would transfer the ill-gotten gains of crime to the public treasury. But, as so often happens with governmental power, it has transmuted over the years into a semi-criminal operation in and of itself.
In 2014, Chris Sourovelis’ son was arrested for selling $40 worth of drugs. Three weeks later, the Philadelphia police forcibly evicted the entire Sourovelis family from their home. This was part of Philadelphia’s aggressive program to shut down drug houses which plagued neighborhoods throughout the city.
Sourovelis, who owned the property, was never charged with a crime. Nevertheless, before he and his family could return to their home, he had to go to court. But this wasn’t just any tribunal.
The forfeiture court at Philadelphia’s City Hall had neither judge nor jury. Instead, it was run by the District Attorney’s Office, the same organization which authorized the property seizures. Since this was a civil court, no lawyer or public defender was provided to persons trying to get their property back. If they couldn’t afford to pay a lawyer, the petitioners themselves had to present their cases to an Assistant District Attorney. The prosecutor in the courtroom determined whether or not the City could keep the property into perpetuity, and there was no venue for an appeal.
Needless to say, the District Attorney’s Office did pretty well in forfeiture court.
Relatively speaking, Sourovelis got off easy. He and his family were allowed to reoccupy their home provided they banned from the premises the son who had sold the $40 worth of drugs.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
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Public union pensions will be paid.
That is all you really need to know.
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“In that article, one benighted anonymous police officer is reported to advocate using aggressive civil asset forfeitures to turn “our police forces into present-day Robin Hoods” since “[a]ll of our home towns are sitting on a tax-liberating gold mine.”
Government steals taxpayer money under threat of arms.
We can thank the fascist Chief Justice William Rehnquist for allowing thieving cops to seize the property of innocent Americans. His ruling was based on 16th century English common law related to seizing pirate ships and their booty.
Tricky Dick Nixon appointed this criminal jurist.
I sat on a jury twice where the judge would not allow evidence that would have cleared the accused of any crime at all. Read in the paper later that they lost everything they owned anyways. It is time for lady justice to take off the blindfold and take a look at who is raping her.
“Government steals taxpayer money under threat of arms.”
Ultimately, all government diktats implies the point of a gun for compliznce. Germany 1939 and USSA 2019.
Very astute observation.
They take from working people under persecution of having to pay exorbitant taxes to give it to assclowns who do not work nor deserve it.
Saw a video where a State Trooper and a county cop were on the verge of drawing on one another for the sake of shaking down a trucker. Yes - the financial incentive must be removed to excise corruption.
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