TYRANNY, here and now!

> From: Dave <dkuehne@erols.com>
> website: http://www.fear.org

The Looting Of America
How over 200 Civil Asset Forfeiture laws
enable police to confiscate your home,
bank accounts & business without trial.

>
> By Jarret Wollstein
> http://www.escapeartist.com
> 12-30-00
>
> 'A police dog scratched at your luggage, so we're confiscating your life
> savings and you'll never get it back.' Police stopped 49-year-old Ethel
> Hylton at Houston's Hobby Airport and told her she was under arrest because
> a drug dog had scratched at her luggage. Agents searched her bags and
> strip-searched her, but they found no drugs. They did find $39,110 in cash,
> money she had received from an insurance settlement and her life savings;
> accumulated through over 20 years of work as a hotel housekeeper and
> hospital janitor. Ethel Hylton completely documented where she got the money
> and was never charged with a crime. But the police kept her money anyway.
> Nearly four years later, she is still trying to get her money back.
>
>
> Ethel Hylton is just one of a large and growing list of Americans - now
> numbering in the hundreds of thousands - who have been victimized by civil
> asset forfeiture. Under civil asset forfeiture, every-thing you own can be
> legally taken away even if you are never convicted of a crime.
>
> Suspicion of offenses which, if proven in court, might result in a $200 fine
> or probation, are being used to justify seizure of tens or even hundreds of
> thousands of dollars worth of property. Totally innocent Americans are
> losing their cars, homes and businesses, based on the claims of anonymous
> informants that illegal transactions took place on their property. Once
> property is seized, it is virtually impossible to get it back.
>
> Property is now being seized in every state and from every social group.
> Seizures include pocket money confiscated from public-housing residents in
> Florida; cars taken away from men suspected of soliciting prostitutes in
> Oregon; and homes taken away from ordinary, middle class Americans whose
> teenage children are accused of selling a few joints of marijuana. No person
> and no property is immune from seizure. You could be the next victim. Here
> are some examples:
>
> In Washington, D.C. police stop black men on the streets in poor areas of
> the city, and "routinely confiscate small amounts of cash and jewelry". Most
> confiscated property is not even recorded by police departments. "Resident
> Ben Davis calls it 'robbery with a badge'." [USA Today, 5/18/92]
>
> In Iowa, "a woman accused of shoplifting a $25 sweater had her $18,000 car -
> specially equipped for her handicapped daughter - seized as the 'getaway
> vehicle'." [USA Today, 5/18/92]
>
> Detroit drug police raided a grocery store, but failed to find any drugs.
> After drug dogs reacted to three $1.00 bills in the cash register, the
> police seized $4,384 from cash registers and the store safe. According to
> the Pittsburgh Press, over 92% of all cash in circulation in the U.S. now
> shows some drug residue.
>
> In Monmouth, New Jersey, Dr. David Disbrow was accused of practicing
> psychiatry without a license. His crime was providing counselling services
> from a spare bedroom in his mother's house. Counselling does not require a
> license in New Jersey. That didn't stop police from seizing virtually
> everything of value from his mother's home, totalling over $60,000. The
> forfeiture squad confiscated furniture, carpets, paintings, and even
> personal photographs.
>
> Kathy and Mark Schrama were arrested just before Christmas 1990 at their
> home in New Jersey. Kathy was charged with taking $500 worth of UPS packages
> from neighbors' porches. Mark was charged with receiving stolen goods. If
> found guilty, they might have paid a small fine and received probation. The
> day after their arrest, their house, cars and furniture were seized. Based
> upon mere accusation, $150,000 in property was confiscated, without trial or
> indictment. Police even took their clothing, eyeglasses, and Christmas
> presents for their 10-year-old son. The incentive for government agencies to
> expand forfeiture is enormous. Agencies can easily seize prop-erty and they
> usually keep what they take. According to the Pittsburgh Press, 80% of
> seizure victims are never even charged with a crime. Law enforcement
> agencies often keep the best seized cars, watches and TVs for their
> "departments", and sell the rest.
>
> How extensive are seizures in America today? The Washington Post has
> reported that the U.S. Marshals Service alone had an inventory of over $1.4
> billion in seized assets, including over 30,000 cars, boats, homes and
> businesses. Federal and state agencies seizing property now include the FBI,
> the DEA, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Coast Guard, the IRS, local police,
> highway patrol, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, FDA, and
> the Bureau of Land Management. Asset forfeiture is a growth industry.
> Seizures have increased from $27 million in 1986, to over $644 million in
> 1991 to over $2 billion today.
>
> Civil asset forfeiture defines a new standard of justice in America; or more
> precisely, a new standard of injustice. Under civil seizure, property, not
> an individual is charged with an offense. Even if you are a totally innocent
> owner, the government can still confiscate your ''guilty'' property.
>
> If government agents seize your property under civil asset forfeiture, you
> can forget about being innocent until proven guilty, due process of law, the
> right to an attorney, or even the right to trial. All of those rights only
> exist if you are charged with a criminal offense; that is, with an offense
> which could result in your imprisonment. If you (or your property) are
> accused of a civil offense (offenses which could not result in your
> imprisonment), the Supreme Count has ruled that you have no presumption of
> innocence, no right to an attorney, and no protection from double jeopardy.
>
> Seizure occurs when government takes away your property. Forfeiture is when
> legal title is permanently transferred to the state. To get seized property
> returned, you have to fight the full resources of your state or federal
> government; sometimes both! You have to prove your property's "innocence" by
> documenting how you earned every cent used to pay for it. You have to prove
> that neither you nor any ofyour family members ever committed an illegal act
> involving the property.
>
> To get a trial, you have to post a non-refundable "bond" of 10% of the value
> of your property. You have to pay attorney fees - ranging from $5,000 to
> over $100,000 - out of your own pocket. Money you pay your attorney is also
> subject to seizure (either before or after the trial) if the government
> alleges that those funds were "tainted". And you may be forced to go through
> trial after trial, because under civil seizure the Constitutional protection
> against "double jeopardy" doesn't apply. Once your property is seized,
> expect to spend years fighting government agencies and expect to be
> impoverished by legal fees - with no guarantee of winning - while the
> government keeps your car, home and bank account.
>
> In fact, in a recent Supreme Court decision (Bennis v. Michigan), the Court
> said explicitly that innocent owners can be deprived of their property if
> it's used to facilitate a crime, even without the owner's knowledge or
> consent. That means you can now lose your home or business because of the
> action of employees, relatives, or guests, over whom you have absolutely no
> control.
>
> Police and prosecutors have incentive to confiscate as much as possible.
>
> Not only do police and prosecutors have the power to seize anything you own
> on the slightest pretext, they also have the incentive. The dirty little
> secret of the forfeiture racket is that police, prosecutors and judges can
> benefit personally by stealing your property.
>
> Brenda Grantland - America's leading asset forfeiture defense attorney -
> gives these examples of government greed in her book Your House Is Under
> Arrest:
>
> Suffolk County, NY. District Attorney James M. Catterton drives around in a
> BMW 735I that was seized from an alleged drug dealer. He spent $3,412 from
> the forfeiture fund for mechanical and body work, including $75 for
> pin-striping.
>
> Warren County, NJ. The assistant chief prosecutor drives a confiscated
> yellow Corvette.
>
> Little Compton, RI. The seven member police force received $3.8 million from
> the federal forfeiture fund, and spent it on such things as a new 23-foot
> boat with trailer, and new Pontiac Firebirds. But that's just the tip of the
> iceberg. The head of one Los Angeles police forfeiture squad claims his
> group personally pocketed over $60 million in seized property.
>
> Why do our courts tolerate these outrageous legalized thefts? Because they
> get their cut. It's completely legal for confiscated property to be used by
> police, prosecutors and judges, so long as it's for official business. In
> 1996, a federal district court even ruled that police can personally receive
> 25% of the value of any confiscated home, car, or business.
>
> Some police will kill you for your property
>
> In Malibu, California, park police tried repeatedly to buy the home and land
> of 61-year-old, retired rancher Don Scott, which was next to national
> parkland. Scott refused. On the morning of October 2, 1992, a task force of
> 26 LA county sheriffs, DEA agents and other cops broke into Scott's living
> room. When he heard his wife, Frances, scream, he came out of his upstairs
> bedroom with a gun over his head. Police yelled at him to lower his gun. He
> did, and they shot him dead.
>
> Police claimed to be searching for marijuana which they never found. Ventura
> County DA Michael Bradbury concluded that the raid was "motivated at least
> in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit the ranch for the government . . .
> [The] search warrant became Donald Scott's death warrant."
>
>
> _____
>
> Jarret B. Wollstein works as an independent writer and direct-mail marketing
> specialist. He is a founder and director of the International Society for
> Individual Liberty (ISIL), an international human-rights and free-market
> networking organization with members in over eighty countries. His ISIL
> issue papers have sold over two million copies and have been translated into
> six languages.
>
> Mr. Wollstein is the author of 300 articles and audio-tapes and four books,
> including Society Without Coercion (1969) and The Rage of lslam (1992). He
> is currently completing his fifth book-The Clinton Health Care Disaster. He
> is also a former editor of the Individualist magazine and the Financial
> Privacy Report.
>
> Mr. Wollstein's essay appeared as a two-part series in the January and
> February 1994 issues of Freedom Daily, published by The Future of Freedom
> Foundation - For more information on Forfeiture in the USA, view the
> Forfeiture Endangers American Rights (FEAR) website: http://www.fear.org
>
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