The Constitution is Toilet Paper: Asset Forfeiture Edition!
2 min read
Yes,the Constitution is toilet paper, and you have only to look at the way government behaves to understand why this is the case. Today’s edition highlights a growing practice of state and local governments, civil asset forfeiture. Civil asset forfeiture enables the government to seize your property without charging or convicting you of any crime. That’s because you aren’t on trial; instead, your property is on trial.
In the United States, your property has no presumption of innocence, right to counsel, or any of the other myriad individual rights you have as an actual person. Civil asset forfeiture is a way of holding your property liable for the crime you are suspected of committing. Even though the police cannot convict you of any crime, they can still hold your property accountable for the crime they think you committed.
Who do you have to thank for this? Congress. In 1984, Congress passed the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, establishing a special fund. Local police providing assistance to federal investigations soon found that their cooperation was profitable; through a program known as Equitable Sharing, a large percentage of the proceeds from seizures were shared with the local police providing the assistance.
Read more at Western PAC!
Jay Batman is a graduate of the Texas Tech University School of Law, where he attained his J.D. in May 2013. He completed a B.A. in English with a minor in Political Science at the University of Montevallo in 2002. He is employed with Dustin Stockton Political Strategies, LLC, and presently resides in West Texas with his dog and co-author, Buddy Love
