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Saturday, December 19th, 2020

Police Say Seizing Property Without Trial Helps Keep Crime Down. A New Study Shows They’re Wrong.

Author:     Ian MacDougall
Source:     ProPublica
Publication Date:     Dec. 14, 2:33 p.m. EST
 Link: Police Say Seizing Property Without Trial Helps Keep Crime Down. A New Study Shows They’re Wrong.
Stephan:   Law enforcement in the United States is so deeply corrupted and compromised in so many many ways, including racism, an affinity for fascism, and the kleptocracy of civil forfeiture. It is little wonder American justice ranks so poorly in the world, 19th to be exact. Here is the latest proving civil forfeiture, a favorite of police and sheriffs is just theft under the color of authority.
Police officers in Atlanta in June. In a recent civil forfeiture case, a suburban Atlanta sheriff spent $70,000 in forfeiture funds on a muscle car that he uses solely to drive to and from work. Credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty

In 2015, New Mexico lawmakers unanimously passed a bill to all but end civil asset forfeiture, the process that lets police keep cash or property they seize, even if they never charge the owner with a crime, so long as they suspect that it’s linked to criminal activity. High-profile lawsuits and press attention had prompted some states to reexamine their forfeiture laws.

Law enforcement officials howled in outrage. In New Mexico, sheriffs and prosecutors implored the governor to veto the legislation. Eliminating civil forfeiture, they argued, would hand the bad guys a win and put public safety at risk. “You’ll get less law enforcement,” predicted the chair of the state sheriffs’ association, Ken Christesen, who noted that police departments use forfeitures to help fund their budgets. (The bill still allowed forfeiture, but only through criminal court, which imposes a much more stringent burden of […]

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