Posted on 05/19/2010 7:17:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
In America, we're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Life, liberty and property can't be taken from you unless you're convicted of a crime.
Your life and liberty may still be safe, but have you ever gone to a government surplus auction? Consumer reporters like me tell people, correctly, that they are great places to find bargains. People can buy bikes for $10, cars for $500.
But where did the government get that stuff?
Some is abandoned property.
But some I would just call loot. The cops grabbed it.
Zaher El-Ali has repaired and sold cars in Houston for 30 years. One day, he sold a truck to a man on credit. Ali was holding the title to the car until he was paid, but before he got his money the buyer was arrested for drunk driving. The cops then seized Ali's truck and kept it, planning to sell it.
Ali can't believe it
"I own that truck. That truck done nothing."
The police say they can keep it under forfeiture law because the person driving the car that day broke the law. It doesn't matter that the driver wasn't the owner. It's as if the truck committed the crime.
"I have never seen a truck drive," Ali said. I don't think it's the fault of the truck. And they know better."
Something has gone wrong when the police can seize the property of innocent people.
"Under this bizarre legal fiction called civil forfeiture, the government can take your property, including your home, your car, your cash, regardless of whether or not you are convicted of a crime. It's led to horrible abuses," says Scott Bullock of the Institute for Justice, the libertarian law firm.
Bullock suggests the authorities are not just disinterested enforcers of the law.
"One of the main reasons they do this and why they love civil forfeiture is because in Texas and over 40 states and at the federal level, police and prosecutors get to keep all or most of the property that they seize for their own use," he said. "So they can use it to improve their offices, buy better equipment."
Obviously, that creates a big temptation to take stuff .
This is serious, folks. The police can seize your property if they think it was used in a crime. If you want it back, you must prove it was not used criminally. The burden of proof is on you. This reverses a centuries-old safeguard in Anglo-American law against arbitrary government power.
The feds do this, too. In 1986, the Justice Department made $94 million on forfeitures. Today, its forfeiture fund has more than a billion in it.
Radley Balko of Reason magazine keeps an eye on government property grabs: "There are lots of crazy stories about what they do with this money. There's a district attorney's office in Texas that used forfeiture money to buy an office margarita machine. Another district attorney in Texas used forfeiture money to take a junket to Hawaii for a conference."
When the DA was confronted about that, his response was, "A judge signed off on it, so it's OK." But it turned out the judge had gone with him on the junket.
Balko has reported on a case in which police confiscated cash from a man when they found it in his car. "The state's argument was that maybe he didn't get it from selling drugs, but he might use that money to buy drugs at some point in the future. Therefore, we're still allowed to take it from him," Balko said.
Sounds like that Tom Cruise movie "Minority Report," where the police predict future crimes and arrest the "perpetrator."
"When you give people the wrong incentives, people respond accordingly. And so it shouldn't be surprising that they're stretching the definition of law enforcement," Balko said. "But the fundamental point is that you should not have people out there enforcing the laws benefiting directly from them."
Balko is exactly right.
It was a little more insidious than that. The King of France was heavily in debt to the Templars. Rather than pay up, he simply had them arrested and executed.
Try reading and comprehending my post before putting in your response.
Freepers fall into all kinds of categories. Some of us don’t trust law enforcement, judges and the district attorney’s office because they have first-hand experience of corruption, such as being found guilty for a crime they had absolutely nothing to do with.
Please don’t misunderstand my post. I agree with you 100 per cent in that there have been innocents unjustly and wrongly accused, prosecuted and convicted. My ire is with those who paint all LEOs with the same brush.
My Sgt. told me 30 some years ago that once I was convinced that someone was guilty, to do everything I could to find him innocent. If I could not, then I had a good case.
Never lost one due to a poor investigation. More due to deal making by the prosecution and the defense.
Yep the five who voted to uphold stealing a Michigan woman’s car that her husband used to buy sex in were Scalia, Thomas, Renquist, OConnor and Ginsburg. A very unfortunate decision in my view.
Understood. That's how I read your post but I always have to mention what happened to some of us. Well, at least one of us.
My father was deputy reserve so I've seen both sides.
Stay Safe... ;>)
What do you mean?
How and when does TSA do this?
Watches, Jewelry, etc?
thats not the other hand...the other hand is why the gov gets to screw the bank on the outstanding loan, just to get their $500...???
The VAST majority of seizures are associated with the drug trade, which of course has to do with the drug war.
Such seizures were not tolerated before huge money was made in organized crime (so there was good stuff to seize)...which began in prohibition...and continues in the black market for drugs.
Personally, I have no problem with seizures IF:
1) It is from CONVICTED criminals...provided the property was used in the crime, or gained because of the criminal enterprise. Those never convicted must have their property returned.
2) It is actually the criminal’s property—stolen or leased property belongs to someone else—all according to millennial old established law.
3) The distance between the enjoyment of the property—and the law enforcement personnel who actually seize it—is as much as possible. Seize and sell a SUV from a drug dealer? Great, but make sure the proceeds go to schools or drug rehabilitation—NOT to the cops who took the thing—or their department or their boss. Otherwise the motivation to loot (yes, admittedly from scumbags) is too much to resist—and abuse will be rampent.
so nobody on yer shift ever does things 'illegal' ???
how often have you reported it ???
for my part, when somebody does a crappy auto repair, i apologize and double my efforts to make it right for the consumer...what have YOU done to 'police' yer own ???
"Thank You" for yer service, and I offer a humble apology for typing the previous before reading the entirety of the posts...
Thanks very much Congressman Hyde.
yer whole post here simply reeks of projection and whether you believe it or not, i have lost many billable hours that shouldve been charged due to others incompetence or outright thievery...and have done plenty of freebies or otherwise discounted labor for circumstances where kids safety was more important...
you OTOH, sound like many cops ive been robbed from and who otherwise relied on the unwashed public to take care of you in 'perks' so that you 'might' be around if needed, rather than hiding behind a billboard waiting to catch a 'lawbreaking' speeder...
anyways, by all means, close ranks, kiss ass, 'do yer job' and enjoy yer tyranny while it lasts...
The cops murdered a dentist in California so that a local politician could seize his land.
Donald Scott.
Malibu, CA
Murdered Oct 2, 1992.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJk9tdY-bvs
“We put him down.:
This has been going on for years. Doesn’t matter if you are found “not guilty”, they can keep your property. In fact, you don’t even have to be charged with a crime. America at its best.
I have wondered since Day 1 how a cop could afford 2 fairly new Mercedes.
Here in California cops can easily make $150K...before overtime and extracurriculars.
Well, that’s a crime right there!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.