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To: PapaNew
[Their argument is] Since it's money and not a person being held, there's no innocent til proven guilty thing

That argument should fail in court because if the seizure wasn't based on probable cause to believe the item was associated with a crime, the seizure violates the 4th Amendment and is illegal.


Right, but what if you're just traveling through and you live an hour or more away? What if you can't afford an attorney to fight it? What if they only took a couple thousand, and it'll cost you thousands more to get it back, not to mention hours and days spent in court? What if you're threatened with arrest if you don't just forfeit the money and go on your way, fight it later?

Yes, you can fight it and get your money back, but the whole idea is that a drug dealer won't be willing to fight it since the money/car actually came from or was involved in illegal activities. For your average Joe, they kinda hope you don't find it worthwhile to fight, but if you do; Oops, sorry, our bad. Here's your money back. Don't be so suspicious next time. Illegal seizure? Don't push your luck, bro, you got your money back. Now go away. Next!

UnConstitutional? You bet your ass. But given the state of society today, not surprising that it happens and is legally 'justified'.
63 posted on 03/21/2015 2:51:41 PM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: Svartalfiar

Sure, what you say is true and is a reason this thing has perpetuated. It takes more than one average Joe to fight this - it takes enough people in a state to prohibit this and any other unconstitutional state or federal behavior.

Too many people seem too acquiescent about government just taking away their liberties, like there’s nothing that can be done. On an individual basis, no, the normal guy can’t do much about the unjust incident you describe. But if enough people in a given state said, “Enough already!”, change would come.

This also is another strong argument against drug laws, at least federal drug laws, which gives them way too much intrusive power and oh BTW, are unconstitutional. People in a given state could choose to repeal state drug laws or tailor them to minimize these kinds of abuses.


64 posted on 03/21/2015 3:10:20 PM PDT by PapaNew (The grace of God & freedom always win the debate in the forum of ideas over unjust law & government)
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