The feds have resumed a controversial program that lets cops take stuff and keep it

[bananas]

Source: Washington Post

The Justice Department today announced that it is resuming a controversial practice that allows local police departments to funnel a large portion of assets seized from citizens into their own coffers under federal law.

The "equitable-sharing" program gives police the option of prosecuting asset forfeiture cases under federal instead of state law. The Justice Department had suspended payments under this program back in December, due to budget cuts included in last year's spending bill.

"In the months since we made the difficult decision to defer equitable sharing payments because of the $1.2 billion rescinded from the Asset Forfeiture Fund, the financial solvency of the fund has improved to the point where it is no longer necessary to continue deferring Equitable Sharing payments," spokesman Peter J. Carr said.

Asset forfeiture is a contentious practice that lets police seize and keep cash and property from people who are never convicted — and in many cases, never charged — with wrongdoing. Recent reports have found that the use of the practice has exploded in recent years, prompting concern that, in some cases, police are motivated more by profit and less by justice.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/28/the-feds-have-resumed-a-controversial-program-that-lets-cops-take-stuff-and-keep-it/

[villager]

1. Why make a distinction between "asset forfeiture" and "burglary?"

Both are done by thieves.

[JoeyT]

8. Burglary is entering a residence with the intent to commit a crime.

This isn't burglary, it's armed robbery. Which is worse.

[villager]

10. Point taken. nt

[JoeyT]

12. Now I've got the phrase

"Stand and deliver, in the name of the law!" running through my head.

[awoke_in_2003]

38. Now I have an Adam Ant song stuck in my head

Thanks a lot

[dogman]

2. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

And some wanted Lynch on the Supreme Court.

[Kip Humphrey]

3. We are the Freakees!

[CrispyQ]

35. This. ^^^

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Why would Obama's Justice Department sanction this?

It is theft, pure and simple.

[Hydra]

5. Excellent question

I'm sure we'll have an answer soon...right about when we see those transcripts.

[SHRED]

13. +10

[Ed Suspicious]

26. The words tools, flexibility, and badguys come to mind.

Also the word bullshit.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Absolutely hideous. "Finders, keepers?" No moral value whatsoever. n/t

[billhicks76]

7. Thanks Obama

What the hell is going on? He wants his legacy being fleecing minorities in the roads. Driving across country has literally been a war zone experience. You can expect to be searched AT LEAST once if you have out of state plates. I've seen it firsthand and it's scary as hell.

[PatrickforO]

9. They call it 'equitable sharing,' but I call it what it is - STEALING

And it is despicable that the weasels we elect to supposedly represent our interests have not put an end to it.

[LovingA2andMI]

11. This is a Money Grab Pure And Simple...

[fbc]

14. Thanks Obama

[blackspade]

15. So we're back to sanctioned theft.

Lovely.....

This is terrible policy, used in terrible ways.

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. Theft program

[NobodyHere]

17. Impeach Obama for allowing this

[davidthegnome]

18. Read about this years ago.

I was indulging one of my favorite hobbies - and reading a Dean Koontz book... can't recall the title (to be fair - I have read a lot of Dean Koontz books) at the moment, it was a fictional story that talked about how the DEA and various government/enforcement agencies could easily ruin lives and seize assets. What shocked me was the idea that, without evidence or conviction, various agencies could freeze (and, indeed, ultimately seize) your financial assets, houses, cars, cash, you name it. In the story I read, this was done because they claimed to have "suspicion" that a suspect had earned his wealth through illegal drug sales - an allegation that turned out to be untrue, but ultimately ruined his life and took away everything he had.

I was curious enough after reading that book, that I did a little research afterwards - and I found that, basically, the nightmare scenario imagined by Koontz was very, very realistic. Yes, it's not just a matter of cops intimidating people on the streets and taking their cash, bribes... "protection payments" and so on, but your assets can be seized completely legally. For most of us, this would be a damned hard thing to fight in court, particularly with assets frozen.

There are some who are probably reasonably immune to such things - billionaires, in particular, who have large amounts of cash stashed in offshore accounts and so on. So the various law enforcement agencies would find it difficult to seize all of their assets, but most of the rest of us have no such protection. For me - I suppose it is this - I really don't own anything worth more than a few hundred bucks, and I have very, very little money.

It is not merely the potential for abuse that worrisome here, but the inevitability of it. If we are to learn anything from history... such policies and laws are not put into place unless someone is going to take advantage of them - often in ways that we would find "questionable" at best, and "evil" at worst.

Legalized theft, backed by the full power and authority of the US government.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. Not bad considering they attack the poor.

[OnyxCollie]

20. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[bemildred]

21. And we call other countries corrupt.

There is nothing more corrupt than "civil asset forfeiture".

[Sunlei]

22. On top of that, it's difficult* for poorer people to have a bank account, forced to carry cash.

*banks charge fees for everything if a person has a small balance account.

[Peace Patriot]

23. Horrible!

Big expose about it in the New Yorker a while back. It is simply mind-boggling what has happened to people.

And the thing that REALLY gets me is that people don't have to be convicted of anything to have all their possessions and money taken away!

I mean, this is the sort of thing that triggered the American Revolution!

It is also one of the biggest and worst consequences of the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs." The "war on drugs" is a license to kill and a license to steal, in addition to destroying countless lives through imprisonment. Worst. Domestic. Policy. Ever.

But it doesn't stop at our borders. It is a license to kill and a license to steal in other peoples' countries as well.

Worst foreign policy ever, except for outright overthrow of governments and U.S. military invasion and bombardment.

[Joe Chi Minh]

24. Surely, the definition of a lawless country : when even it's police are

outlaws (an unjust law is no law) - literally, highwaymen. All that's missing are the masks.... And they don't NEED them !

The insanity of it all is too much to take in.

[Scuba]

25. Another in a long list of betrayals by the man I voted for twice.

[Odin2005]

27. This would be called corruption in any other country.

[jwirr]

34. And we would probably send troops to fight it.

[Cobalt Violet]

28. Wow republicans love to steal from the people!

Oh wait...

[Martak Sarno]

29. I don't know what's real anymore

Shelley Berman as Buddy Ryan’s schizophrenic friend Al, in the TV Series Night Court, from 1988:


Al: “I don't know what's real anymore... When I was young, my mother told me Santa Claus was real. But when I got older- she told me he wasn't. One book says Jesus is real: one book says he isn't. We're living in the greatest country in the world! and we're murdering each other in the streets. What did they expect when they made us believe in the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny then gave us the nuclear bomb to play with... Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle is a lie like all the rest, the astronauts killed the man in the moon, growing up took care of the rest”.

[jomin41]

30. Yet ANOTHER societal benefit of the drug war!

The hits keep coming.

[JonathanRackham]

31. A simple executive order could fix that.

[Punx]

32. If they stop stealing from the 99%

Where will they get money for "LE", and "Tax Breaks for the Corporations...er I mean the Job Creators".

This is what a "Banana Republic" looks like folks.

[jwirr]

33. With this law we can expect to all become Ferguson MO.

No police department should be allowed to make their arrests to be the basis for their funding. Ever.

[CrispyQ]

37. The citizens have become prey.

That's what happens in an everything-for-profit system.

[CrispyQ]

36. This is so wrong.

And the democratic party wonders why they have to fight so hard to get voters to the polls. Well, duh. Policies like this don't inspire me to support the party. I'm so sick of We Suck Less. Fuck that.