Asset Forfeiture
Do you know what this is? It's the power of the government to seize property which has been implicated in a crime without compensating the owner. It does not matter if the owner is guilty of a crime and in most cases the owners are never charged and prosecuted. In these cases the property in question is treated as a person (i.e. U.S. Government vs one Ford tractor) in determining whether it remains seized or returned to the owner. The burden of proof (that the property was not implicated in a crime) is on the owner, not on the government. The government does not have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the property was implicated in the crime.
So, for example, you could have a winter home in Florida which ends up being broken into and used as a meth lab while you're absent during the summer. The local police, upon finding the lab, have the right to confiscate the property and its contents without giving you a dime, regardless of the fact that you had no knowledge of the crime and and are innocent. The property itself is treated as a person (in the way that a company is treated as a person) and is in effect charged with the crime. You yourself are never charged. You are required to pay your own legal fees in any appeal, without access to any of the funds/assets you would have kept in that house or the proceeds of the sale of that house. Once the property is officially seized the US Marshals Service auctions it off to pay for more law enforcement, thus giving an incentive for more seizures. You have to keep making any payments on the mortgage of the house while the case is pending, which can take years - otherwise your credit score will be ruined.
Or say the property seized costs much less, like a $500 gun. Not many people will pay the thousands in court fees for property worth much less so it remains with the law enforcement, uncontested, then auctioned.
Want to learn more?
Forfeiture Endangers Human Rights
Seizure Fever: The War on Property Rights
Most recently: Federal Appeals Court: Driving With Money is a Crime
Drug war Scotches property rights
posted by Kristin @ 8:07 AM
1 Comments:
It is virtually impossible to win a case against civil forfeiture. The way that it works is that the government only has to show on a balance of probabilities that there exists a suspicion of wrong doing and you loose. In 2001 the government charged me for dealing in drugs and at the same time brought civil forfeiture proceedings against me. It was easy for me to prove in the criminal trial that I was innocent but it was impossible to prove in the civil trial that I was not a suspect and so I lost my home.
http://www.simonprophet.com. Civil forfeiture does not serve society because it violates human rights.
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