The whole civil forfeiture thing is one of the biggest injustices we've perpetrated on our citizens. It's really scary -- our Constitution gives us the right to be secure in our persons and property, but it's seized on a whim without just cause. Furthermore, the burden of proof for your property is much lower than in a criminal case, because they claim that it's the property that's the defendant, not the owner. Suuuuure it is.
A few months ago I read about a
neato little robot they're developing to deal with slugs in your lawn. Evidently it wanders around collecting slugs in a little bag, then drops them into a fermentation tank. It then uses the gasses produced in that fermentation to fuel itself. Pretty neat idea, all-told.
It just struck me that our police agencies are now very much like that robot. They're self-fueling -- they take people's property and sell it to increase their own power. However, they're guided by fallible people, and it's human nature to want to increase their power. At least the damned robot never gets hungry.
>>It just struck me that our police agencies are now very much like that robot. They're self-fueling -- they take people's property and sell it to increase their own power. However, they're guided by fallible people, and it's human nature to want to increase their power. At least the damned robot never gets hungry<<
I agree. If you look back into history and study the period when the Catholic Church was taken over by tyrants, they used the term "heretic" to accomplish two things. They silenced their opposition and they provided themselves with a steady source of funds to increase their own power. It was a terrible time, and we are not far from being in the same place on this issue.