America’s civil asset forfeiture laws, another product of law enforcement’s failed war on drugs, were originally designed to deprive suspected drug dealers of the spoils of their illicit trade — houses, cars, boats. The law now regularly deprives people unconnected to the war on drugs of their property without due process of law and in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Not surprisingly, corruption follows.
Federal and state police can keep property seized or sell it and retain a portion of the revenue generated. Some of this, in turn, can be repurposed and distributed as bonuses in police and other law enforcement departments. The only way the dispossessed stand a chance of getting such “forfeited” property back is if they are willing to take on the authorities in a process where the deck is stacked against them. In such cases, for instance, property owners have no right to an attorney to defend themselves, which means that they must either find additional cash for a lawyer or contest the seizure themselves in court. “It is an upside-down world where,” says the libertarian Institute for Justice, “the government holds all the cards and has the financial incentive to play them to the hilt.” (Note from editor: this is typical right-wing anti-government rhetoric. It isn’t the ” government” pocketing the cash, but rogue policemen!)
Civil asset forfeiture has mutated into what’s now called “for-profit policing” in which police departments and state and federal law enforcement agencies indiscriminately seize the property of citizens who aren’t drug kingpins. Sometimes, for instance, distinctly ordinary citizens suspected of driving drunk or soliciting prostitutes get their cars confiscated. Sometimes they simply get cash taken from them on suspicion of low-level drug dealing.
All this is justified by telling the public that the police are giving the proceeds of sales to schools , old people’s homes and charities. Unfortunately, the police are in general reluctant to specify what they have given and to whom. Militarised, and with a laager mentality, they are unaccountable in most jurisdictions and have become so reliant on civil asset forfeiture to pad their budgets and acquire “little goodies” that reforming, much less repealing, such laws is a tough sell.
The previous posting (by Owen Bell) has a comment by me about the deep divisions among American citizens. This, above, simply outlines one of the problems – police unaccountability and the quiet support of it by most Republican politicians, who dominate most State legislatures – another brickfalling out of the wall.
There’s no evidence that civil asset forfeiture, or the militaristic approach of America’s policemen, actually reduces crime. The problem in large swathes of America is that people don’t trust the police, and often with good reason. If civil asset forfeiture became illegal and the police demilitarised, crime would come down because people would be more willing to report it to the police.
This reminds me of another problem with America’s criminal justice system- bail. Often when people are arrested, the cost of bail is too high for their families. Sometimes they will go into debt to get their loved ones released, often resorting to dodgy loan sharks who charge extortionate interest rates. Or they will simply put up with their relatives being jailed until they are tried. It’s an incredibly unfair system, and yet another example of how America makes life for its poorest far more miserable than it needs to be.
Excellent post. You are quite right, but there is one reservation. One has to bear in mind that the police are very jumpy and, indeed, trigger-happy, with so many guns out there. It must be very scary. But at the same time they generally make not the slightest effort to win hearts, be cheerful and pleasant or encourage you to think they are on your side. Recently, we had an alarm problem while we were out, and the police gained entrance to the house. They were very nice and chatty, which took me aback somewhat (first time ever), even if one of them did call our decor “very retro” ! (which is true, but….. )
Having said the above, there is no excuse for the number of shootings by police of people whose crime appears to be being black while driving. The police shooters are sometimes held acountable, but , if they are, it is grudgingly. A huge re-training of police should be undertaken First however,something should be done about guns. That won’t happen, so nothing will happen. Ridiculous, isn’t it? Killing on a warfare scale and no one can do a thing!!!