Posted on 04/26/2016 4:30:58 AM PDT by HomerBohn
Try being the key word here. Do you happen to know the success rate of that?
Sadly, you hit the nail right on the head.
The seeds of tyranny were sown decades ago.
*Never* *Ever* travel with that much cash.
“I don’t really damn care. They stole his money for a broken tail light! If they do it to him, they can do it to anybody!”...........
“Broken tail light”?......Ever consider the cops might have broken that tail light?
Corrupt cops cashing in.
Ka-ching!
They stole his money for greed. The broken tail light was just a convenient excuse.
Not really of our concern. The simple fact is, without an arrest, arraignment, or trial, this person's money was confiscated.
No proof at all that this was in any way related to a crime.
More importantly, how do the police know it was not?
Just because it is the law, does not mean the law is just.
Civil forfeiture is theoretically designed to prevent criminals from profiting from “ill-gotten” gains. Because there is a different and lower standard of proof for civil cases vs. criminal cases, Defendants often forfeit such property without trial for a number of good reasons. Especially when they are guilty as heck, but may not want to risk trial on the criminal matter.
In any event, the procedure is rife with abuse in some jurisdictions.
Where it SHOULD be used and is fully justified, is in benefiting from the use of illegal aliens and/or human trafficking labor. If your paving company or roofing company makes money (and forces legitimate competitors out of the business) because it benefits from using low wage workers paid under the table, those “gains” are “ill-gotten” and your company should be seized. If you are Zoey Baird or Barbara Streisand and you keep your house neat and the garden tidy by hiring illegals, your house should be seized. It is not just drug dealers who are hurting our nation.
Things would change in a hurry. I am going to advise President Trump to do this immediately upon inauguration. This would work hand in hand with “the Wall.”
Ed
In case you didn't grow up in the USA, and from your comment I suspect you didn't, in this country the burden of proof for illegal activity is on the government. The accused doesn't have to prove innocence, the government has to prove guilt. Asset forfiture reverses that presumption of innocence putting the burden of proof on the accused.
Further it is logically impossible to prove a negative ie that you didn't do something, because by definition you can't prove a lack of something. Which is why you should NEVER talk to police
Likewise, there is a reason Barry and his buddies, including the apparently complicit GOPe continue to grant more and more power to the cops (local, state, county) because while the military members pledge to follow and defend the constitution, cops do not. This is not a knock on cops, just an observation I am far from alone in making.
Never.
2) Some, not all of this money was set for donations to charity.
3) The money is being returned in full.
4) Oklahoma's forfeiture laws are considered among the worst in the country. But lawmakers cannot be bothered to change them. Stop blaming the cops. Last time I checked, cops don't make the laws.
Yeah, you’re right. Drug dealers and gun runners should absolutely be allowed to keep their ill-gotten profits after they serve their night in jail.
Let's see:
a christian band travels the country doing fund raising events where they say they are going to use this money for a church and an orphanage.
No drugs were found.
No criminal charges were brought.
Band member was released.
The car was returned.
Witnesses vouched for him.
The community is up in arms over the stolen funds.
What more do you want?
We have our own Nazis here in the US, and people who support “laws” like you suggest are them.
Everything the Nazis did was legal - they passed the laws to make it so.
Likewise, all over our land, Police are corrupt and becoming nothing more than a protection racket run by cowards wearing bulletproof vests
OK: Grand Jury Indicts Sheriff For Wrongly Taking $10,000 from Traffic Stop
Nice try at changing the subject, but unlike the government worshipers (like you) on this thread I happen to believe in things like innocent until proven guilty and Blackstone's ratio. Asset forfeiture is simply armed robbery under the color of law.
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