Since 9/11, the government has been encouraging law enforcement agencies to act more aggressively in searching for drugs, contraband, or suspicious people. This aggressive brand of policing has resulted in the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars from citizens not charged with a crime.
Civil forfeiture is basically the process of charging your property, not you, with a crime. If your property is seized and charged, it is up to you to prove your property’s innocence. Some examples of real cases are:
- “United States v. Eight Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty Dollars ($8,850) in United States Currency”
- “United States of America… v. An Article … Consisting of 50,000 Cardboard Boxes More or Less, Each Containing One Pair of Clacker Balls…”
- “United States of America, v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins”
Most people are unable to pay court costs to get their property back, and in many cases the law enforcement agencies are allowed to keep most, if not all, of any cash taken. It has been reported that one particular police department used cash obtained by civil forfeiture to buy alcohol for office parties, as well as a margarita machine, while another police agency decided to buy a Zamboni.
Some police are advocating to use civil forfeiture in the form of “highway interdiction” as a way of raising revenue for cash-strapped municipalities, and in fact, many departments are purposefully targeting citizens who own property they desire. One officer actually referred to it as “pennies from heaven”.
In a report from the Washington Post:
“All of our home towns are sitting on a tax-liberating gold mine,” Duputy Ron Hain of the Kane County, Ill., wrote in a self-published book under a pseudonym. Hain is a marketing specialist for Desert Snow, a leading interdiction training firm based in Guthrie, Okla., whose founders also created Black Asphalt.
The techniques of highway interdiction are taught at these various private police-training firms, including the one that created the private intelligence network known as the Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System. Through the Black Asphalt system, police nationwide are able to share detailed reports about both criminal, and innocent American motorists alike. Some of the details include identifying tattoos, addresses, and even social security numbers.
The Black Asphalt program also has a chatroom where police are able to display trophy-photos of themselves with property taken from citizens.
In a forum at officer.com, one police officer asked:
To which he received many positive—if not eager—replies, including this response from an officer who goes by the name, “Narco”:
(Notice the profile picture of a gangster with an Uzi.)
Clearly, the Black Asphalt program is popular amongst law enforcement agencies, however, there are those who do not condone the actions of their colleagues.
“Those laws were meant to take a guy out for selling $1 million in cocaine or who was trying to launder large amounts of money,” said Mark Overton, the police chief in Bal Harbour, Fla., who once oversaw a federal drug task force in South Florida. “It was never meant for a street cop to take a few thousand dollars from a driver by the side of the road.”
In total:
- 61,998 cash seizures have been made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments, totaling $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept $1.7 billion, and $800 million went to Homeland Security and other federal agencies. Half of the seizures were below $8,800.
- Only one sixth of the cases were challenged due to the court costs. In 41 percent of those cases the money was returned. In 40 percent of the cases the appeals process took over a year.
- 298 departments and 210 task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008.
- Those agencies with officers who have participated in the Black Asphalt program have seen a 32 percent jump in seizures since the beginning of 2005. That’s three times the rate of other departments. More than 25,000 police have belonged to Black Asphalt, according to officials.
- $427 million in cash seizures during highway stops in a five-year period was reported by Desert Snow-trained officers.
- The Black Asphalt program has been banned in Iowa and Kansas due to concerns that it isn’t a legal law enforcement tool.
Sources:
O’Harrow, Robert, Jr., Steven Rich, and Sallah, Michael. The Washington Post. Sep 6, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com
Actually the peoples property IS protected from those who serve within our governments by the Fourth Amendment – which ALL law enforcement swear a solemn and binding Oath to keep BEFORE the duties of the position they occupy. The US Constitution and all that is in Pursuance thereof it IS the supreme law of this land, and it is what ALL laws must follow to be lawful here – not “color of law”, pretend laws.
Not keeping that Oath IS a felony, and also carries mandatory sentencing. Read the Preamble to the Bill of Rights protected within the US Constitution.
Amendment IV
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.
5 U.S.C. 3331, provides the text of the actual oath of office the three branches of our government, the military, all law enforcement, the heads of the States, all federal employees are required to take before assuming office.
5 U.S.C. 3333 requires the three branches of our government, the military, all law enforcement, the heads of the States, all federal employees sign an affidavit that they have taken the oath of office required by 5 U.S.C. 3331 and have not or will not violate that oath of office during their tenure of office as defined by the third part of the law
18 U.S.C. 1918 provides penalties for violation of oath of office described in 5 U.S.C. 7311 which include: (1) removal from office and; (2) confinement or a fine.
More importantly this is being used to change our LEGITIMATE government from the inside so qualifies as:
5 U.S.C. 7311 which explicitly makes it a federal criminal offense for anyone employed in the United States Government to “advocate the overthrow of our constitutional form of government”.
The definition of “advocate” is further specified in Executive Order 10450 which for the purposes of enforcement supplements 5 U.S.C. 7311.
Executive Order 10450 provision specifies it is a violation of 5 U.S.C. 7311 for any person taking the oath of office to advocate “the alteration … of the form of the government of the United States by unconstitutional means.”
Our form of government is defined by the Constitution of the United States.
Thus, according to Executive Order 10450 (and therefore 5 U.S. 7311) any act taken by government officials who have taken the oath of office prescribed by 5 U.S.C. 3331 which alters the form of government other then by amendment, is a criminal violation of the 5 U.S.C. 7311.
It also qualifies as *Treason, **Terrorism against the American people and the USA.
*http://www.shastadefense.com/Dare-Call-It-Treason-21.pdf
** 28 C.F.R. Section 0.85 Terrorism is defined as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives”.
18 USC § 241 – Conspiracy against rights: If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or
If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
Yeah that is wonderful… Now as justice system in USA forces you to go bankrupt if you decide to challenge an administration… And this is NOT in the Constitution as I know of…