[who_would_fardels_bear]

Both Republican and Democrat politicians have been in favor of this.

It was an easy way to pretend to be "tough on crime" and "tough on gangs and the mafia".

[Michael.SF.]

Rep. Sandy Levin (D-MI) to introduce the Taxpayer Protections Against Abusive Seizures Act.

That Act is begging for a clever acronymic name:

"TAPAS" -- For all the Spanish food aficionados

"TAPAASS" -- That would get 0bama's attention

[cripplecreek]

Big issue in Michigan lately.

[fella]

Why can we not aim civil forfeiture at the illegal aliens? After all any property and money that they have gotten while in our country illegally are by definition ill gotten gains and should be forfitted when they are caught. The police could be self financing for a long time.

[beethovenfan]

Our government has become a strong-arm robber.

[indthkr]

Soviet Era Justice bump for later....

[softengine]

Anyone else note the pitiful irony in having to pass a law to get our 5th amendment rights BACK?

[gibsosa]

bump

[AppyPappy]

PRESUMED innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If you were presumed innocent at the moment of arrest, you wouldn’t be arrested.

Duh....

[Ken H]

Asset forfeiture is one reason why cops are the biggest drug war whores. President George H W Bush, March 05, 1991 =>

Asset forfeiture laws allow us to take the ill-gotten gains of drug kingpins and use them to put more cops on the streets and more prosecutors in court.

In the last 5 years alone, the Justice Department shared over half a billion dollars in forfeited assets with State and local law enforcement.

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=2764&year=1991&month=3

[CincyRichieRich]

Like this is already happening with IRS taking accounts from people...Any reason this couldn’t be done with gold and silver holdings or IRAs?

[kiryandil]

This situation is similar to the experience of George Reby, who had $22,000 stolen from him last year in Tennessee after he was stopped for speeding. Officer Larry Bates asked Reby if he had any large sums of cash in his vehicle and, when Reby answered truthfully, Bates proceeded to take all the cash under forfeiture laws. This happened even though Reby had proof that he was using the money to buy a car, evidenced by his active bids on eBay. During an interview, when Bates was asked why he did not include this critical fact in his report, Bates responded, “I don’t know.” Carrying cash is apparently all the evidence of guilt he needed.

Sounds like Officer Larry Bates has a severe "blanket party" deficiency. George should wait for a suitable length of time to remedy that situation...

[MaxMax]

How many broken windows would it take to cost any city the fee of confiscation balance?
Coming soon, or worse if they rob the wrong person.