Guest Post by Simon Black
We’ve discussed this on and off for several years now. Civil asset forfeiture is a legal process that allows the government to seize assets and cash from citizens without any due process or judicial oversight.
You don’t even have to be charged with a crime. You are assumed guilty unless you can somehow prove your innocence.
Of course, not everyone has this ability… if you aren’t local, state, or federal law enforcement, this is called stealing, and you go to prison.
But the government is actually a bigger problem than common thieves.
A 2015 report showed that law enforcement used civil asset forfeiture to steal more from US residents than every thief, robber, and burglar in America combined.
About $4.5 BILLION worth of cash, cars, homes, and other property is taken by civil asset forfeiture each year — hundreds of millions more than common criminals steal.
And it happens at every level. Your local cop can use civil asset forfeiture just like your state trooper. And then any one of the armed agents of the US government—from the FBI to the Fish and Wildlife Service—can rob you for whatever reason they want.
This travesty continues to grow because the cops who take your stuff get to keep it. Police departments and government agencies around the country depend on civil asset forfeiture to boost their budgets.
Cops will literally keep some of the cars they take as squad cars. And they make a fortune auctioning off the houses, boats, and anything else they confiscate.
Obviously this gives cops an incentive to steal, whether or not they actually think the property was used in a crime, or acquired illegally. Remember, civil asset forfeiture adds billions every year to their bottom line.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case of civil asset forfeiture.
Tyson Timbs was convicted of selling a small amount of drugs to an undercover police officer. He was sentenced to house arrest, and paid about $1,200 in fines.
But then police used civil asset forfeiture to take his $42,000 Land Rover which Timbs purchased with money from a life insurance policy after his father died. The money did not come from selling drugs, or any other illegal activity.
Timbs sued, and the case made its way to the Supreme Court, because every lower court in Indiana said the forfeiture was perfectly legit.
The case revolves around whether or not the seizure of the Land Rover was an excessive fine under the 8th amendment, and whether or not this protection against excessive fines applies to state governments.
And the public got some crazy insight into the government’s position.
The Indiana Solicitor General was arguing in favor of civil asset forfeiture when Justice Stephen Breyer asked him a hypothetical.
Breyer asked, if a state needs revenue, could it force someone to forfeit their Bugatti, Mercedes, or Ferrari for speeding? Even if they were going just 5 miles per hour over the speed limit?
And the utterly appalling answer from the Indiana Solicitor General was, yes.
That’s right… the official government position is that they can steal any amount of your property in “connection” with any crime whatsoever, no matter how trivial the crime may be… even exceeding the speed limit by 5 miles per hour.
This is how overbearing and authoritarian the government has become in the land of the free.
This is how much power your local cop has… and the power only grows as you go to state, and federal officials.
If there is any solace in any of this, it is that the other Supreme Court Justices were reportedly laughing at this exchange.
The justices seemed incredulous that Indiana’s top lawyer was using such absurd assertions and flimsy reasoning in his arguments.
So, for now, we can keep our cars if we get pulled over for speeding. But that may not always be the case…
Depending on how this is ruled, it could pave the way for even more egregious abuses of power… or it could curb the practice, and reign in these thieves in uniforms.
Just understand where the government is coming from. These politicians, bureaucrats and officers think they can do whatever they want. Absolutely anything goes, with no limitation whatsoever.
And that makes it a little tough to feel like you really live in the land of the free.
I used to sell my art to clients all over the country, frequently taking cash. Now? No effing way. In fact I still drive across the country quite a bit but it’s in a 14 year old p/u truck. With my cruise set 5 MPH under any speed limit.
Bastards.
When you ( I ) realize that you have been betrayed and lied to about everything from the fake moon landings to 911 and everything in between then you know you have been lied to about ” America being the land of the Free “. It’s all fucking lies. And when the opportunity is right they will declare martial law and then we will know the Beast System has arrived .
And unfortunately will be the start of 4 gen in the country.The man or woman with nothing to lose has everything to gain.
I left the cesspool 8 yrs ago. But I still hate that corp (usa) more by the day. Home of scum , pedos, politition creeps, etc.
In Philadelphia, and probably many other US cities, the city can steal your house if a crime has been committed on the property. How? Civil forfeiture laws allow the city to seize any property that “facilitates a crime.” Never mind that the idea that a house facilitated a crime is ludicrous, as far as the law is concerned it only matters that a crime took place on the property. Under the law, prosecutors are suing the house, not the owner. That can’t possibly work, can it? No? The DA wins ninety-six percent of the cases. All he has to do is prove a link between a crime–e.g., dealing an ounce of weed on the front porch to an undercover police officer–and the property. Open and shut. The accused has no right to an attorney either, because it’s a civil proceeding. So say goodbye to your house. Welcome to the Benighted States of America.
I would say also say goodbye to a few da’s at that point,as my above comment mentioned,we all have a snapping point and seems they want to keep pressing their luck.
The potential of civil forfeiture is one of the reasons I sold my rental. I can control who is in my house and what they’re doing. I can’t do that with a rental. The owners of small, family owned motel in Massachusetts fought civil forfeiture for years because somebody they rented a room to sold drugs.
If my ’95 Buick Century could go 5mph over the speed limit, I’d probably get an erection.
And then get pulled over while pleasuring yourself?!
Speeding with a hard-on. Seize the evidence.
With Stucky the evidence would be gone as soon as they touched it.
Coming to a Theater near You.
White farmers’ legal fight against plans to give their land to black South Africans
without compensation is thrown out by country’s High Court.
South Africa’s High Court rejected a legal challenge brought by white farmers.
We’ll all have to drive pimp cars.
No matter what the SC has to say on this case, count on the government at every level to seize every single thing they decide they need. Savings, investments, vehicles jewels, art, stored crops, if it has a market value, they will come for it sooner or later. Oh, you can keep those old jeans, but that will be about it.
Got a nice home? Real pretty view?? Private, well kept? Some govt. mutt or one of their friends wants it, color it gone. Pretty wife, daughter? Wanna keep that rock?? Hmmmm we can work something out, can’t we darlin’??
Oh, your smartphone will still work. Netflix will be “free”. People will roll right the fuck over.
I’ve never understood how it has been deemed constitutional for the government to seize property without due process. The 14th Amendment says: ” nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”. The state saying “We didn’t go after HIM – we just went after his CAR” is nonsense.
I hope the Supreme Court kills the whole concept of civil asset forfeiture, although I doubt they will.
And of course the 5th amendment bars the federal government from the same
“No person shall… be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”.
Government badge wearing minions once only did the bidding of the elected paracites as they pass and enforce confiscatory tax laws to strip producers of their wealth . The natural progression is to eventually expand their take with an attitude of entitlement that morphed into legitamized theft in their minds “THEY” feel entitled !