Civil Asset Forfeiture
The cluster focuses on criticisms of civil asset forfeiture in the US, where law enforcement seizes property without charging or convicting the owner, often compared to theft and highlighted through examples and links to advocacy sites. Debates distinguish it from criminal forfeiture and call for reform due to its abuses.
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Its close to as bad as civil asset forfeiture that the police use just to take whatever they want. In civil asset forfeiture they don't even need a court order to do it, they can just take it if they say they think it was related to a crime. Want it back and you have to sue. No public defender is provided if you choose to sue, meaning that people unable to afford an attorney just have to accept the police taking their possessions / cash.
Maybe you haven't heard of civil forfeiture?https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_Unit...
This is the profit model for civil forfeiture, repeatedly supported by courts: the US government is allowed to seize any assets that they want if they claim it has been involved in illegal activities. They don’t charge the person they’re stealing from so the person can’t defend the claims and prevent the seizure - instead they have to prove their innocence to get their own money back. But that’s expensive, and if the stolen money is less than the recovery costs (which the government has stated a
civil forfeiture, its a way law enforcement steals from citizens that have not been charged with a crime. Abused all the time! Congress does nothing. I hope this case splits this abuse wide open.https://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/03/civil-asse...
Good to know that civil forfeiture does not exist. /s
He's probably talking about the horror stories of people getting their cash/assets seized via civil forfeiture. eg. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/09/01/police-seiz...
They have civil asset forfeiture to handle that ;)
They could also stop civil asset forfeiture - in 2014 that surpassed burglary in the US as the top form of theft by value. Without being charged or convicted of any crime police can take cash and property, which can then be sold for funding. The case is brought against the property instead of the individual, and then to get it back they have to prove the innocence that it wasn't used in a crime, rather than the state having to prove that it was.
Civil forfeiture is a joke. Either prove a crime occurred or GTFO.
Wait, you forget theft via civil asset forfeiture!