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Posted on 11/13/2015 8:48:23 PM PST by markomalley
The Department of Justice took $4.5 billion in private property including cash, cars and homes from Americans in 2014, which includes both civil and criminal forfeitures, according to a report from the Institute for Justice.
A majority, or 87 percent, of the forfeitures by the government from 1997 to 2013 were civil forfeitures, while only 13 percent were criminal.
“Under civil forfeiture laws, the government can seize this property on the mere suspicion that it is connected to criminal activity,” the report, entitled “Policing for Profit,” said. “No charges or convictions are required.”
“Every year, police and prosecutors across the United States take hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, cars, homes and other property—regardless of the owners’ guilt or innocence,” the report found.
Proceeds from the sale of this personal property are used to generate revenue for the federal government.
In 1986, the Justice Department took $93.7 million in revenue from these forfeitures and in 2014, they took $4.5 billion, representing a 4,667 percent increase.
The report drew attention to a case of asset forfeiture involving Charles Clarke, a 24-year old carrying $11,000 in cash on a flight home to Florida. Federal agents claimed that Clarke’s bag smelled of marijuana and seized the funds. Although the law enforcement officials could not find any drugs on his person or his bag, current law allowed his property to be seized.
“The officers found no evidence that he was guilty of any crime before seizing his money,” the report said. “In the upside-down world of civil forfeiture, they did not have to.”
“Civil forfeiture threatens the constitutional rights of all Americans,” said Scott Bullock, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. “Using civil forfeiture, the government can take your home, business, cash, car or other property on the mere suspicion that it is somehow connected to criminal activity—and without ever convicting or even charging you with a crime.”
Angela Erickson, a senior research analyst at the Institute for Justice said civil forfeiture should be abolished.
“Civil forfeiture needs to be completely abolished,” Erickson said. “Short of that, the federal government should reform its laws by requiring a criminal conviction and eliminating the profit incentive that allows law enforcement to fill their coffers.”
RICO gone wild.
“But when a government becomes destructive of these ends...”
Well they’ve got to pay for their dachas somehow.
Civil Forfeiture? A good use for it would be to take the houses and business of those who profit from using illegal alien laborers. This would include, of course, Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats, whose businesses and residences have benefited from their cheap labor.
It would bring in money AND deter using illegal aliens.
Oldplayer
I saw this coming way back in early 1990’s.
Tried to warn everyone.
Got laughed at.
The war on drugs has become a war on everybody.
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://bush41library.tamu.edu/archives/public-papers/2764
I was in the AF in the 1980s/90s and got assigned to Panama. The Recreation Center there had somehow gotten a extra large open sea fishing vessel through the program that the DEA had seized in Florida. They’d hired some local guy and ran a full schedule for rental with this seized boat. Even at that time, I asked how this was legit to take the guy’s private property.
GWHB was/is a MORON.
Agenda 21 is a nightmare that 99.9% of Americans are unaware of.
I just want to puke.
People voted for Clinton twice and Obama twice saying - How bad could it be?
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** “Under civil forfeiture laws, the government can seize this property on the mere suspicion that it is connected to criminal activity,” **
So do they seize Muslim’s property too — when a crime has been committed?
I’d like to see more information on that $4.5 billion number.
That works out to $18 million of forfeitures every business day.
If that number is correct, there would be thousands of private contingency lawyers lined up to sue the Justice Department or to appeal previous decisions.
That is not happening - which means the number is wrong, or there is important information that has not been reported in this article.
That is not happening - which means the number is wrong, or there is important information that has not been reported in this article.
I know several people personally who have had property seized by the government. I am not talking about small amounts... they have lost everything in some cases. These people were generally not able to find “contingency lawyers” to help them after their property was seized. They paid lawyers until every last penny was gone in some cases. The government is a tough nut to crack. Our legal system is corrupt. Civil actions are actually more difficult to fight than criminal defense. For the most part lawyers are unwilling to take on the system unless they are getting paid directly for their time. I have no skepticism of the 4.5 Billion dollar figure at all.
That’s incredible. I didn’t know it was that rampant. Wow!
So, what are we talking about here?
Tax liens?
In that case, I believe $4.5 billion in forfeiture is accurate, and no lawyer would waste his time trying to get any of that money back.
But the article says nothing about tax liens, which is why I said important information has been left out.
A lot of pinhead hypocrites have been braying all over the place over Kelo and Trump and yet are silent on this crap...Why? Because it doesn’t have the hated Trump name attached in any way? Never mind that Kelo didn’t either.
You are so fos it is coming out your ears. Conservatives here at FR support property or ights. Trump and his swabs do not.
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