I completely fail to understand how this civil asset forfeiture process is allowable. It makes no sense whatsoever.
Because the fox is guarding the henhouse.
It continues because the courts have allowed the feds to use an absurd legal trick in which they in essence charge the property with a crime, instead of the owner of that property. And since inanimate objects don’t have Constitutional rights they think they can keep their plunder indefinitely without any due process. This corrupt practice has been going on since at least the 80s, and it’s long past time for it to stop. One of the worst examples I remember was the case of a couple who owned a small jet charter business. Without their knowledge, a paying passenger of theirs carried marijuana on a flight in his briefcase. During an FBI/DEA investigation, the feds found a few pot seeds on the floor of their Learjet and seized the jet, putting them out of business and depriving them of their extremely expensive property. In their ensuing effort to get their property back, the feds kept stonewalling them with the argument that since they were themselves not charged with anything, they had no right to appeal the government’s actions. The feds flat out said that it was the property involved in an alleged crime, and not its owners, so they had no recourse.
Millions of Americans suspect the FBI of corruption and conspiracy against patriotic Americans, so I think we should be able to bash down the doors of FBI headquarters without warning and announce that all employees present must empty their pockets and turn over that and any other personal property they have on site as the property may have been involved in a crime.