John Stossel: “Something has gone wrong when the police can seize the property of innocent people.”
We’ve ceded entirely too much power to our governments, at all levels. Time to start taking some most of it back.
“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.
You think?
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In the example given, the guy held the title to the truck until he was paid for repairs. All that means is that he had a piece of paper. It did not mean he owned the truck. His recourse is to sue the truck owner for the money he owes him.
In the Shield they did something on civil forfeiture and made it sound ridiculous. House of a woman was seized because her son, the drug dealer, had paid her mortgage a couple of times.
The woman could appear in court and argue unjust enrichment and turn over the money her son gave her. And before everyone feels sorry for her, remember, there are hard working people out there who can’t afford a house, who come home and find their place burglarized by some junkie so he can buy drugs from her drug dealing son. So,it is the victims of crime who made those mortgage payments and she has no right to keep the money.