Property Seizure and a Corrupt Government

by M. Randolph Hamilton

The government has found a way to increase it's holding on property and raise funds without raising taxes. The problem is you could become a victim of this Mafioso type of activity without having committed a crime.

Police, both federal and local, can seize property based merely on "suspicion" of having committed a crime. Police frequently take money, vehicles and real estate on the word of an informant or the appearance of an individual. Police will frequently take money from people just because of the color of their skin, presuming that if they have money, it must be from selling drugs. In most cases charges are never filed.

Sometimes, when media pressure prompts a department to return the property seized, the law enforcement agency will return it only after the person who lost the property signs an agreement not to sue. These property seizure laws have corrupted law enforcement officials and laws that were originally passed to seize the assets of criminals are now being used to seize the property of law abiding citizens.

Willie Jones was 42 when he purchased an airline ticket to fly from his home city of Nashville, Tennessee to Houston to purchase plants for his landscaping business. The ticket agent, promised a cut of any drug money confiscated, called DEA agents who then stopped Jones and confiscated $9,000 of cash that Jones was carrying. Jones was a black man. U.S. District Judge Thomas Wiseman of Nashville ordered the DEA to return the money to Jones, but it took over two years for the decision to come down from the court. In the mean time, an Innocent man had to fight the government to get back what they had no right to take on the first place.

The Volusia County, Florida, sheriff's department set up a trap on I-95 to catch drug traffickers. From 1989 through 1992 they confiscated over $8,000,000 from people driving the highway. In over 75% of the cases, there were no charges files against the people from whom the money was stolen. In most of the cases the people were black or Latino. This is just racial profiling at its best. It is also open theft by a law enforcement agency.

All any law enforcement agency has to do now to increase its budget, it steal from innocent people claiming they suspect foul play. Only those with the financial fortitude to fight a battle in court will get back what was theirs, but only after loosing additional funds to legal fees. Many times they will only get back what is theirs after signing an agreement not to sue.

Property seizure laws have clouded the judgement of law enforcement officials at all levels and gotten in the way real crime fighting. When law enforcement has to choose between finding legitimate evidence to prosecute and criminal and stealing assets from innocent people, the choice to often becomes clear. Stealing is much easier.

Learn more from these relevant links.

• Seizure Fever: The War on Property Rights
• JUDGE ORDERS DEA TO GIVE BACK MONEY SEIZED FROM INNOCENT MAN
• Property Seizures on Trial
• Cornell Law School: Forfeiture

Defend Freedom™