As I said before, I am not worried about my property, I function within the law.
As for waking up. You do realize you are flying off the handle after hearing only one side of a story, right? And the side pushing these stories is the side that stands to gain from illegally obtained money/goods.
You make the assertion the feds had, “Tissue thin justification.” Who told you that? The person protesting the seizure? I doubt the feds have shown their hand, so you don’t know what they had, or why they did what they did. And even if the courts threw the case out (I don’t know anything about it), we all know there are no bad court decisions. No activist judges with an axe to grind.
Look where most of these stories come from, defense attorneys, organizations that defend criminals... To me, most of these stories appear to be from people who want to be able to break the law, and profit from it.
These stories do prompt concern, and we should be suspicious of government overreach, and misconduct, but the idea we are all at threat of having everything we own confiscated for no reason whatsoever is ridiculous.
You do realize your ability to prove you own the car ,boat,home,or bank account really has no bearing on asset forfeiture.They take your property based on the idea it MAY have been connected to some law violation.
Asset forfeiture and the War On (some) Drugs is a failure at stopping crime.Over-reaching government is a threat to all,not just the criminal.
Americans are cajoled every day to take the “purple pill”, the ED pill, the pill for anxiety,the pill for this,and the pill for that by hundreds of commercials and advertisements ;and we wonder why there is a drug problem?!
You ever stop to think that defense attorneys defend the innocent, too?
Just because your stuff was seized doesn't mean you have been or ever will be charged with anything. You still have to sue to get it back.
If you fit a profile (like making small cash deposits on a regular basis--which many small businesses do--the government can rip you off. If you make large cash deposits, the government can rip you off, with the logic that either way, you are a drug dealer. You don't have to be charged with anything, but you have to sue and prove a negative to get your money back--after your accounts have been seized, based on arbitrary profiling. If you haven't stashed enough cash somewhere to get an attorney or land one on commission, you are royally screwed.
What ever happened to "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law."?
Due process has morphed into someone passing a law to redefine it, and the presumption of innocence has been cast aside.
Don't you find it odd that business persons can be profiled but terrorists (esp. Muslims) can't?