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“The publicity and light shown on this scam ended it and some state police resigned to go to work for local parish sheriff’s offices. But the mentality remains ingrained. Public office for private gain and ‘respect my authority’ even if I am an obvious pile of excrement continues to be alive and well here and other places.”

If a few were imprisoned, or shot by seriously aggrieved parties at some point, maybe the mentality would change. Oh, and before someone objects to the second part of my statement, what would YOU do if the corrupt police stole your HOUSE because your son was (unknown to you) dealing heroin from it? https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-ruling-on-civil-forfeiture-2014-11 and https://www.cnn.com/2014/09/03/us/philadelphia-drug-bust-house-seizure/

BTW, such seizures can occur on mere SUSPICION of wrong-doing...and if there is later a “not guilty” result for the supposed underlying crime, the asset is STILL GONE (oh, you can sue to get it back...but good luck being able to afford to sue a municipality or state with unlimited (compared to you) funds.

I had a Western Civilization teacher in high school (late ‘70s) who said that a government had to be VERY careful about taking or destroying a person’s house - because most people have to literally work a lifetime to pay for it, and if it is taken or destroyed then a lot of people will feel that they have nothing left to lose.

The godfather of the federal civil forfeiture laws is the Keebler Elf and he is very, very proud of it.

Surprisingly in the 19th century here and in Texas events such as this often ended with adjudication by Messrs Colt and Winchester. In most cases the loser was adjudged the aggressor and ‘self defense’ was a normal finding.