A Government Issued LicenseTo Steal

License to Steal

by DarkSyde

You're driving down the road in a borrowed jalopy, an envelope on the seat next to you lovingly stuffed with hard earned cash to bid on a sporty car you've wanted since you first saw one in a neighbor's driveway at age 10. It's a beautiful day, not a care in the world; until you see the police roadblock. After waiting in the line of lumbering cars, your turn finally comes. The officer politely nods to you as he asks for your DL and proof of insurance. He then adds nonchalantly, perhaps noticing a bumper sticker advertising a local rock radio station or the preponderance of melanin in your skin, "Mind if I have a look in your car?" Next thing you know, you've been patted down, your friend's vehicle is being towed away, all that money confiscated. They found no contraband, you're not wanted, you're not even under arrest, but they take it all anyway. Surprise! Your property has been seized.

Long before "9-11 changed everything," and George Bush declared war on the Bill of Rights, everything had already been changed and the Constitution already a victim. An ancient practice once used to enrich Kings and Warlords was sadly resurrected in the United States: Asset Forfeiture, a government issued license to steal, backed up by a crew armed to the teeth, and divisions of consiglieres and judges all in on the take that would make any old style Mafia Capo look like an amateur. Some reported examples are appalling:

Police stopped 49-year-old Ethel Hylton at Houston's Hobby Airport and told her she was under arrest because a drug dog had scratched at her luggage. Agents searched her bags and strip-searched her, but they found no drugs. They did find $39,110 in cash, money she had received from an insurance settlement and her life savings; accumulated through over 20 years of work as a hotel housekeeper and hospital janitor. Ethel Hylton completely documented where she got the money and was never charged with a crime. But the police kept her money anyway.

Asset Forfeiture comes stamped with the kind of genuine bipartisanship that's suddenly so in season these days. The proponents of the abominations include folks like Sen. Orrin Hatch and Vice-President elect Joe Biden. On the side of civil liberties is also a bipartisan collective including none other than Instapundit:

The drug war has been a massive failure: a waste of money, of lives and of time. It's also been accompanied by extensive inroads on traditional American freedoms: property forfeitures, "no-knock" searches, expanded wiretap authority, and the destruction of financial privacy, to name just a few. These are inroads that have served the agendas of bureaucrats but that haven't done anything to solve the problem that was claimed as their justification. And the drug war's combination of intrusiveness, corruption and ineptitude calls into question the government's ability to carry out the war on terrorism.

The original motive behind asset forfeiture was sincere: deter drug traffickers and other organized crime kingpins by 'hitting them in the pocketbook.' But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, eh? Over the years, public hysteria fanned by ambitious politicians over drug trafficking and crime in general have allowed seizure advocates to enact ever more Draconian methods. The temptation for police departments to pad shrinking budgets with seized assets or for unscrupulous officers to pocket cash and other valuables is simply too great for some to resist.

If the government seizes your property, forget about presumption of innocence and due process. In a perverse twist on the bedrock principles of American justice, even though the owner may not be charged with any wrongdoing, regardless if there is not one iota of admissible evidence, the property can kept and used by the state, or auctioned off to the highest bidder. In civil cases, where large numbers of seizures are ultimately processed, the burden of proof is on the owner. He or she must usually post a large bond just for the opportunity to prove a negative, namely by showing they committed no crime. That in essence, the assets are innocent. The original owner may have the privilege to so defend their interests in the same legal venue that will benefit in the event the state finds against the owner. The loot often ends up in the local coffer, either by direct deposit or by way clever 'cap n trade' systems between local and national legal apparatus erected to evade protocols put in place specifically to eliminate the endless tug of war that flares up among those torn with serving the public interest Vs. serving their own.

Even in instances where the owner is charged with a crime, seizure laws are applied indiscriminately, often excessively, and those trends are on the rise. How are we going to treat seizure going forward? Should a prospective John caught in a misdemeanor prostitution sting, or a suburban housewife whose kid foolishly left a valium in the console, lose their vehicle? Does it serve the public when laws designed to confiscate luxury yachts and million dollar estates owned by international drug czars, are used instead to relieve recreational users possessing minute amounts of a controlled substances of their modest homes and meager life savings?

If someone is charged with a crime, and they are duly convicted in a court of law, then seizing ill gotten gains which are demonstrated to have derived from that same criminal activity is a justifiable endeavor. But just as the 9-11 attacks opened the door to ignoring the Bill of Rights, the War on Drugs and hysteria over crime in general has been used by politicians and law enforcement to assume vast power begging for misuse and abuse.

We can address drug addiction and reduce organized crime. But decades of empirical experience shows we probably won't make any progress by treating addiction as a crime and crime as an excuse for a free shopping spree. We need change, we want change, we voted for change: Now is one of those rare and vanishing opportunities for change to occur. Seize that Washington, and keep your greedy mitts off our stuff.