This New Yorker article is a real eye opener.

[ballardgirl]

Do you think you own your stuff? Think again.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/12/130812fa_fact_stillman

[G_j]

1. legal theft

“The protections our Constitution usually affords are out the window,” Louis Rulli, a clinical law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading forfeiture expert, observes. A piece of property does not share the rights of a person. There’s no right to an attorney and, in most states, no presumption of innocence. Owners who wish to contest often find that the cost of hiring a lawyer far exceeds the value of their seized goods. Washington, D.C., charges up to twenty-five hundred dollars simply for the right to challenge a police seizure in court, which can take months or even years to resolve."

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Making law enforcement a profit making venture is insane

eom

[AppleBottom]

3. But at least we're better than Russia...

You see these actions are legal because some worthless politicians got together to write a law that stripped Americans of their rights. So you shouldn't complain you should just change the law. With MAGIC!

Or you could raise awareness about such injustices, protest across many different avenues, form a consensus and organize. Just like you're starting to do here. Thank you very much for posting this.

[MattSh]

8. How? n/t

[AppleBottom]

15. How to what?

[Democracyinkind]

4. Wow. How is this not indicative of a police state?

[Solly Mack]

5. Nothing but thugs.

K&R

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. Kick for asset forfeiture reform. Stop legalized thievery.

[valerief]

7. I wonder if there are any "safe" states in the US. God knows the whole South is a cesspool

of civil liberty corruption.

[ballardgirl]

10. F.E.A.R.

Forfeiture Endangers American Rights - http://www.fear.org/

I haven't checked out this organization but they do grade each state on the severity of their laws.

[valerief]

14. Thanks! Maine looks like the ONLY state that won't screw you. nt

[WillyT]

9. HUGE K & R !!!

[progressoid]

11. 'The Good Wife' had a story line about this last year.

seizing assets is a big money maker.

[W T F]

12. So, what's the difference between giving your money to the police in exchange for......

not filing any charges, and bribery?

[HiPointDem]

13. i don't see any difference. it *is* bribery -- and extortion.

a kind of 'legal' protection racket.

[Cryptoad]

20. they use to call it

racketeering,,,,,,, just like they use to call pay day loans , loan sharking!

[HiPointDem]

27. it's interesting to me that government &/or corporations have taken over so many former mafia

rackets. loan sharking, lotteries ("the numbers&quot , on-line gambling, prostitution in a semi-legal way (look at people like spitzer & the use of media to advertise). now the police with protection rackets.

all that's left is drugs. & imo, government & corporations have a big hand in those above the street level, too.

[Stargazer09]

16. Wow

That really upsets me. I had no idea that things were so bad.

[Flatulo]

17. Worcester, Ma has been confiscating vehicles for many years.

If you are even suspected of trying to buy drugs or solicit a streetwalker in the seedier parts of town, bye-bye Mercedes ES500. Or whatever.

The only legal hurdle to confiscation is probable cause. That's it.

These are the FBI's own guidelines on asset forfeiture.

http://m.fbi.gov/#http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar/asset-forfeiture

[elehhhhna]

18. How does that not violate this:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.[1]

[rhett o rick]

34. I guess you are unaware of the shadow Constitution that goes with our shadow government. nm

[Cryptoad]

19. This is what the lost of "Real" Rights

looks like,,,,,,,this is the face of your real enemy, the RightWing,,,,,,, this should be your outrage ,,, yet the far left had rather worry about whether their email are being read by some computer somewhere!

LMAO

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. Next up, cash sniffing dogs.

[Flatulo]

22. LOL! You crack me up!

[ballardgirl]

23. My husband says

they could just use bankers - they smell money a mile away!

[whttevrr]

24. From the article:

In 2011, he reports, fifty-eight local, county, and statewide police forces in Georgia brought in $2.76 million in forfeitures; more than half the items taken were worth less than six hundred and fifty dollars. With minimal oversight, police can then spend nearly all those proceeds, often without reporting where the money has gone.

During my time in East Texas, a police officer told me that if I ventured beyond Shelby County I’d learn that Tenaha was far from an outlier in the region. When I looked through courthouse records and talked with local interdiction officers in nearby counties, I saw what he meant. In Hunt County, Texas, I found officers scoring personal bonuses of up to twenty-six thousand dollars a year, straight from the forfeiture fund. In Titus County, forfeiture pays the assistant district attorney’s entire salary. Farther south, in Johnson County, I came upon a sheriff’s office that had confiscated an out-of-state driver’s cash, in the absence of contraband, in exchange for a handwritten receipt that gave the traveller no information about who had just taken his money, why, or how he might get it back

EDIT: Excerpt added

[RedCappedBandit]

25. The War On Drugs turns police into just another gang of thugs. nt

[Shrike47]

26. If the police in Tenaha were honest, they'd fly pirate flags on their antennas.

[leftstreet]

28. +1

[Douglas Carpenter]

29. WOW!! that is a chilling story -

[surrealAmerican]

30. It astounds me that these laws are still on the books.

Surely, there must have been numerous legal challenges. Why were they upheld?

[jwirr]

31. My father used to say that the only thing we own is our education. Now he would add that this was

true only after we pay for it! But that is the one thing they cannot take from us.

[RainDog]

32. This is the result of the War on Drugs

We need to entirely overhaul our criminal justice and sentencing system - starting with bullshit like this.

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. glad this issue is getting lots of attention