Posted on 05/24/2020 12:07:01 PM PDT by george76
It’s all about the revenue. Civil forfeiture brings in money, and lawmakers are more worried about their budgets than residents’ due process and property rights.
An Arizona bill requiring police and prosecutors to get a criminal conviction before they could attempt to force defendants to forfeit their assets died Thursday at the hands of a bloc of mostly Democrat lawmakers.
Civil asset forfeiture is a mechanism that lets law enforcement seize and keep the assets of people believed to have committed crimes. Many states do not require defendants to actually be convicted — or sometimes even charged — with a crime before police take their property. People are thus put in the position of having to prove their innocence in order to get the money back, subverting due process. Meanwhile, police agencies keep the money they seize and sell the other property they take, thus filling in gaps in their budgets.
This leads inevitably to corruption, as cops look for a pretext to stop people, search them or their vehicles, and—if they find large sums of cash or other valuable property — claim it simply must be proceeds from drug trafficking and try to keep it for themselves. This process was sold to the public as a way to fight drug cartels and other criminal kingpins, but in reality most forfeitures are for relatively small amounts taken from underprivileged people who lack the resources to fight back.
...
a couple of legislators said the quiet part loud: The pandemic is hurting government budgets, and they don't want to give up the revenue.
Rep. Kirsten Engel (D–Tucson) .. understands that asset forfeiture abuse occurs but .. she could not support such a change without also finding a way to ensure that counties have the money they need.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3847215/posts
One of the more obvious examples of institutionalized corruption today.
Oh, BTW, it's fallen into some disfavor, but after Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Trump matter, handing it to weasel Rosenstein, one of his first initiatives was to try to re-institute civil asset forfeiture, with "appropriate safeguards." Spit.
Not all seizures are unreasonable. Develop Probable Cause , get it approved by management and a DA or Assistant US Attorney. Then seize. I always knew when I appropriately seized Drug Money. The next day I would get a call from an attorney, almost apologising for taking the case. His job was to appeal the matter tying up counsel to make it administratively impossible for our attorneys to do other work. Case closed.
Why Did Arizona Democrats Kill a Bill Protecting Citizens From Police Overreach?
Because they know cops will support them when it really counts.
Lacking a conviction, it’s just legalized theft by the government.
It seems surreal that after all this time, after all the cursing and vituperation poured out on FR and a thousand other forums, after all the legal wrangling that has proved beyond any doubt the utter unconstitutionality of civil asset forfeiture we're still talking about this monstrous abuse in the present tense.
Personally, I'm done blaming corrupt politicians for this "legal" atrocity. The people who need to be brought to account for this are the imbecile voters who put them there in the first place. Please don't even dare talk to me about the need for revenue; next time I see you in a dark alley I may just use that argument for knocking you over and walking off with your wallet!
“It seems surreal that after all this time, after all the cursing and vituperation poured out on FR and a thousand other forums, after all the legal wrangling that has proved beyond any doubt the utter unconstitutionality of civil asset forfeiture we’re still talking about this monstrous abuse in the present tense.”
Can you see how we’ve been led by the nose for years? Just give us a cause and we’ll give you our rights.
I don't give a damn where the money came from. Civil asset forfeiture without a related criminal conviction is always nothing more than raw theft by the state. All those who take part in it are no better than any other thief.
You are right. Civil asset forfeiture is “raw theft!”
Under the banner of the agency, big or small, the thieves work with no conscience or thought of what or how their act fits into honorable duty or behavior. The badge “entitles” them.
Democrats have no honor, none! No surprise how Arizona failed.
Mo person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law
McCain still controlling from the grave with the communist Democrats. Arizona rats will always support communists.
Civil asset forfeiture started out with good intentions but it has become little more than an excuse for bandits with badges to rob and kill people. It needs to end or else we need to put an end to the government that condones it.
Horse manure. You were a thief with a badge. No more, no less.
Read the effing Constitution and Bill of RIGHTS (not permissions).
No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
That includes those YOU think guilty.
Deprivation of rights under color of law. YOU belong in jail.
Yup. People have no idea how evil some of the 'laws' of this country are. I have gotten the same reaction from people. It really does sound like something that just couldn't be possible in a Free Republic. Unfortunately, that hasn't existed here for a long time. See my tag. Plenty of supporters of the police state right here on this site.
“Civil asset forfeiture started out with good intentions”
Road to Hell...
That “believed to have committed crimes” standard is where much BS lies. All that is required is an allegation, the truth of which is of no matter except on paper.
Due process doesn't mean what you think.
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