Civil asset forfeiture is a practice that is widespread in the US and it involves law enforcement confiscating private property from citizens, without needing to have any conviction of wrongdoing. If they simply believe that your car, cash, boat, house, might be related to a crime, then they can come and take it.

Supporters of the practice question, ”Well, how else are the police supposed to get the funds that they need...?”

After all, if it isn't going to come from this controversial practice then the only other solution for them to acquire those funds would be through taxes. And if we want to see an end to civil asset forfeiture, then we should get on board with paying more taxes, they say.

A Revenue-Generating Scheme...

Most of the time we have discovered that the victims of the civil asset forfeiture policy have not been found guilty of any crime in relation to the confiscation of their property. Otherwise, in many circumstances the victims have often been found to be allegedly guilty of some cannabis-offense. Though, if there is no victim, with regard to a “cannabis offense,” how can there be any true crime?

This practice still goes on around the country today, and it has been used to take property such as cars, electronics, guns, cash, real estate, and more.

After the property is confiscated, the pressure is on the victim to try and fight to get it back and to prove their innocence.

Many within the legal community have expressed the sentiment that they see this practice as being one which clearly violates the most fundamental tenets of due process, and there has been growing pressure in the past several years to have this practice reversed.

But what about the police needing to buy what they need to supposedly keep communities safer?

The wealth that law enforcement agencies around the nation have been able to confiscate, thanks to this seemingly illegal practice, measures in the hundreds of millions.

And what have they done with all of the money?

• One DA from Georgia spent about $2,700 on security doors for his private home, along with another $4,450 on football tickets
• one sheriff from GA got caught having spent $90,000 (Dodge Viper) to purchase a sports car for himself, along with a boat for roughly $79k
• the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security spent more than $100k on catering, retail food, and banquet tickets.
• one police department in Illinois used funds to purchase after-market exhaust pipes, heated hand-grips, and decorate chrome, for their motorcycles.
• In Arizona, one sheriff used the funds to bankroll a puff-piece newsletter that he sent out to voters, highlighting his contributions to the community.
• A DA from Texas got caught distributing over $1 million in funds to 3 favored employees and this included payments that were allegedly for advances, travel expenses, car allowances, and more
• cops in Pittsburgh spent over $9k on Gatorade
• In Wisconsin, one Sheriff's office spent more than $14k on Segways that were intended to help them patrol parks
• Florida police from Bal Harbor allegedly spent about $23k on flying first class to Chicago, LA, and Vegas.
• Bal Harbor police also allegedly spent tens of thousands on beach parties that they referred to as anti-drug beach bashes.
• $500+ spent on booze and a margarita machine
• $260k+ on travel expenses for trips to casinos
• $27k spent on a trip to hawaii
• one police chief actually used about $75k to purchase a tanning salon for his wife.

And The Irony...

Considering that many victims of civil asset forfeiture find themselves in that circumstance because of cannabis-related offenses, that we find out the funds that law enforcement have confiscated have also been spent on that.

In Michigan, it's alleged that at least 5 detectives took part in spending more than $40k in funds on prostitutes, alcohol, and cannabis.

With the confiscated funds, law enforcement agencies have also managed to purchase clowns, parkas, coffee makers, computers, cameras, helicopters, armored vehicles, custom police trading cards, pin medallions, protective gear, license-plate readers, and more.

In The Best Interest Of Who?...

Aside from the funds often being spent on things that perhaps aren't in the best interest of any sort of community safety initiative, there is also the issue of transparency.

Because the forfeiture is taking place outside of the normal legislative process, this means it's more difficult to keep track of what funds are coming in, from where, and where they are ending-up.

For some law enforcement agencies, the wealth that they acquire through this practice, makes-up sometimes as much as 76 percent of their budgets; possibly even more. And if at the end of the day, these agencies are ideally supposed to be working for the the interest of the people, then wouldn't that mean that the community has the right to evaluate how the organizations go about utilizing their resources?

It's clear that in many circumstances they've gone a little wild with the extra funding, and in numerous circumstances have been irresponsible with the funds that they've taken from the people--but what else is new.

Pics:
pixabay
via fedsmith.com
pixabay

Sources:
https://www.splcenter.org/news/2018/01/26/weekend-read-civil-asset-forfeiture-%E2%80%94-guilty-until-proven-innocent
http://yellowhammernews.com/opinion/civil-asset-forfeiture-probably-deserve-blame-disgraceful-practice/
https://www.heritage.org/report/law-enforcements-dependence-civil-asset-forfeiture-georgia-and-texas
http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/07/tennessee-spent-100k-in-asset-forfeiture
http://www.starcourier.com/article/20120928/NEWS/120928870
https://www.buzzfeed.com/nicks29/the-14-most-ridiculous-things-police-bought-with-a-4y3w?utm_term=.yy5AOmWoJm#.ivBE742dZ4
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-police-bought-with-civil-forfeiture-2014-10
https://www.vox.com/2015/7/8/8909133/civil-forfeiture-states-map
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/10/11/asset-seizures-fuel-police-spending/?utm_term=.8e83e2984a07
https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/10/22/how-civil-forfeiture-fuels-police-militarization-and-lets-cops-buy-sports-cars-and-hire-clowns/#22cc068dd8a7

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