This pisses me off

[gabeana]

this is criminal I knew about civil forfeiture but we the people are responsible for this we elect people who write these laws

John Oliver on civil forfeiture

[2naSalit]

1. Perhaps the beginning of the end of that

Last edited Sat Jan 31, 2015, 11:39 AM - Edit history (1)

could come in our lifetime...?


http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/01/holder_puts_the_breaks_on_civil_forfeiture_editori.html

[MrMickeysMom]

9. Yeah, I remember reading about this...

We need to go further, of course…

Holder’s reform is a positive but small restraint. What we really need to do is take a closer look at forfeiture law itself. It gives the government far too much power to tread on individual liberty, and will continue to be abused until we pass laws to stop it.

[2naSalit]

10. at the very least it bring attention to the problem

with this action. I would prefer that much more be done about it... last year!

[MrMickeysMom]

12. Why-Oh-Why does it take this long?

Is there a timing to this sort of thing that guarantees if you do something about unlawful law enforcement this much later that later on you can say that you tried to do something about unlawful law enforcement when in fact, it had no chance in hell?

I mean, just exactly how much do every day citizens have to put up with before actions have positive outcomes?

We've had "drug asset seizure funds" abused locally for quite some time where I live.

[2naSalit]

13. Great question

for which I don't have an easily condensed answer.

[MrMickeysMom]

14. Yeah… I kinda knew it was rhetorical...

[2naSalit]

15. BTW

I love your kitty GIFs!!! I miss having kitties in my world.

[MrMickeysMom]

16. I think I'll always be a cat mother...

Thanks.

[lexington filly]

2. America, land of misbegotten priorities and forgotten justice?

[blkmusclmachine]

3. ,

,

[freedom fighter jh]

4. Does this practice not violate the Constitution?

See http://constitutioncenter.org/constitution/full-text ; search on "Amendment V".

[drynberg]

6. Time for a high level ACLU type trial, first we need a team of crack attourneys, no?

[freedom fighter jh]

7. Yes, that would make sense.

Probably the government will argue that the citizen's opportunity to sue is due process. But that's not realistic; most people (as the video said) can't afford to sue. Someone will have to argue convincingly that that means there really is no due process.

[father founding]

18. FU USA

What doesn't nowadays.

[Enthusiast]

5. Idiocracy.

This asset forfeiture is only a symptom.

All this rampant criminality appears to have started with the illegal presidential election in 2,000.

Since then justice in the United States has all but disappeared. No one challenged 911—an obvious false flag operation. No one challenged an administration that intentionally falsified intelligence to justify a brutal, costly, counterproductive war. Those that profited from said war were not even looked upon with suspicion.

Huge financial institutions were rewarded after they destroyed the world economy. And these huge financial institutions are even planning to pull off the very same heist again and no one in the "News" media so much as bats an eye.

[JHB]

8. Wrong Bush

According to journalist Sarah Stillman, a major turning point in forfeiture activity was the passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984.[10] This law permitted local and federal law enforcement agencies to divvy up the seized assets and cash.[6] Civil forfeiture allowed federal and local governments to "extract swift penalties from white-collar criminals and offer restitution to victims of fraud", according to Stillman.[6] From 1985 to 1993, authorities confiscated $3 billion of cash and other property based on the federal Asset Forfeiture Program which included both civil and criminal forfeitures.[10] The methods were supported by the Reagan administration as a crime fighting strategy.

It's now possible for a drug dealer to serve time in a forfeiture-financed prison after being arrested by agents driving a forfeiture-provided automobile while working in a forfeiture-funded sting operation.
—Reagan attorney general Richard Thornburgh in 1989.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United_States#War_on_drugs_.281980-present.29

It was ramped up by the Reagan-Bush administrations under the pretense of the war on drugs, and "law and order" campaigns rarely involve "tying the hands of police" to prevent abuses.

Remember that there's very little Shrub did that didn't have a launching point back under Poppy and/or Saint Ronald.

[2naSalit]

11. And expanded by the next Bush. n/t

[2naSalit]

17. And it gets even worse...

From NPR today...

DEA Using License Plate Readers To Spy On Drivers

http://www.npr.org/2015/01/31/382936124/dea-using-license-plate-readers-to-spy-on-drivers

Apparently a system that began several years back designed to assist in civil forfeiture.