This gave them tremendous incentive to, in the words of one cop, “up the seizure game.” A 1993 Los Angeles Times articleharps on some of these abuses: The War on Drugs can be credited with the rise in use of civil forfeiture laws Via UDPSĪside from its abuse of civil liberties, civil forfeiture posed a major conflict of interest: the police got to keep whatever assets they seized. In the zeal of this anti-drug atmosphere, the low burden of proof required of civil forfeiture seizures was seen as an asset. The goal was to systematically dismantle the drug world by seizing cash. In 1984, President Reagan enacted the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, which enhanced the ability of police officers to seize cash from anyone and everyone suspected of a drug crime. While the police only occasionally took advantage of civil forfeiture in the early 20th century, it truly exploded in popularity in the 1980s, with the rise of the War on Drugs. Over the next few centuries, the government only sporadically utilized civil forfeiture - though various derivations of these laws allowed authorities to seize property without a criminal conviction. Settlers in the American colonies sawsuch forfeiture laws as “unreasonable searches and seizures which deprived persons of life, liberty, or property, without due process.” Nonetheless, Congress adopted its own version of civil forfeiture, allowing government officials to seize the property of anyone who failed to pay his or her taxes. To distinguish between trading vessels, it mandated that all ships importing or exporting goods should bear the British flag any ship that did not do so - regardless of whether or not it broke the law - could be immediately seized.
#State seizing icash series
The origins of civil forfeiture are often traced back to the British Navigation Acts, a series of maritime laws created in the mid-17th century.
Here, action is taken against a specific piece of property rather than a person, leading to interesting case names like United States v. The second, civil forfeiture, requires neither a conviction nor any proof of wrongdoing. The first, criminal forfeiture, requires that a person be convicted of a crime before his/her property is taken. In the United States, the government uses two methods to seize cash or other property.
Using cash that is unjustly seized from Americans, police departments across the nation buy firearms, SWAT gear, flat-screen TVs, and a slew of other goods they deem to be “essential” to operation.īut how exactly is this legal, and why is such a crazy procedure permitted in a country that prides itself on its civil liberties?Ī Brief History of (Legally) Stealing Other People’s Stuff The law flips the American justice system upside down: the burden of proving innocence is on the “suspect” - and if he or she can’t do that, the property is fair game for officers to take. They do not need to file a criminal charge. In doing so, they need no proof that the money is obtained through illegal means. Under the umbrella of “civil forfeiture,” officers of the law confiscate millions of dollars in cash from thousands of individuals like Charles Clarke every year.
Based solely on the fact that his bag “smelled like weed,” they claimed that the $11,000 was related to drug trafficking and seized it. The cash, earned through five years of hard work at fast-food restaurants and retail outlets, represented Clarke’s life savings - money he intended to use for tuition fees. But buried between t-shirts, in the young man’s bag, the officers discovered something of greater interest: $11,000 in cash. One of the men turned to him and grunted, “ This smells like marijuana.” An extensive search ensued, which yielded no trace of drugs in Clarke’s luggage. Two uniformed men - an airport police detective and a local Drug Enforcement Administration officer - approached by Clarke and corralled him into a fluorescent backroom. Having just visited relatives, he was in high spirits, and eager to return to his home in Florida.īut Clarke’s day took an unexpected turn. On February 17, 2014, a 24-year-old college student named Charles Clarke checked a bag at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and parked himself in a chair near the boarding gate.
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