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and the thieves get to keep the money. Citizens should be fighting these tragedies constantly.
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Without ever being charged with a crime, a West Philadelphia grandmother had her home and her car confiscated because her son sold less than $200 worth of marijuana. Elizabeth Young, now 72, is just one of thousands of victims of civil forfeiture, which allows police and prosecutors to confiscate property, even if the owner has not been convicted or accused of any wrongdoing.
But on Thursday, more than seven years after her legal nightmare began, Young scored a major victory at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In a meticulous and unanimous decision, the court rejected the government’s confiscation, and issued more stringent safeguards for property owners. Writing for the court, Justice Debra Todd held that this ruling would ensure that “innocent property owners are not dispossessed of what may be essential possessions…without rigorous scrutiny by the courts.”
The sheer magnitude of this makes it hard for the ACLU to help. And its self funding on the police side, the more they seize the more they spend to defend it....
Actually, the Institute for Justice is leading this fight and they have won several similar cases.
If you DON'T like the law, work to get it changed and stop with the constant false accusations.
P.S> I quit reading after this first few words because of the constant anti police reputation you show with your posts.
Being the law changes nothing. It's still theft and it's still immoral.
Just like slavery being legal didn't change anything. It was still slavery.
I don't like this law and am doing things to get it changed. There are NO false accusations in my post. There are no Anti-police statements in my posts. There are a lot of anti-police-corruption statements in my posts. You should learn the difference.
Are you proud to support oppressive laws and LE corruption?
Can you be any more vague? What exactly has the ACLU done about it other than saying the problem exists? Just name one thing. They have been virtually completely silent on the matter.
With the backing of Koch funding, they were able to get New Mexico to abolish civil forfeiture.
It's a state issue.
If you feel strongly about this, help secure the backing of a billionaire who is willing to fund the non for profit ACLU fight, state by state.
It's terrifying the kind of power we have ceded to LE in this country. They can get away with virtually anything and not be held accountable.
This unwarranted confiscation of personal property is just another example of the egregious misuse of power LE is routinely allowed to get away with. They need to be reigned in.
It's the laws, not enforcement.
No two states have the same laws.
Only one state has abolished Civil Asset Forfeiture.
On one hand, the laws enabled various governments to sieze most of Maddoff's assets. On another is the goofiness that is in the OP's link.
Most states do not require a conviction to seize. Nor must the siege be proportionate to the alleged crime.
Moves and countermoves. Cities cut police budgets and cops cover the difference with legalized theft, until that's repealed. Raising taxes to pay cops that people now think are crooks is dead at the polls, so cops may then look for more covert sources of revenue.
Civil asset forfeiture should definitely be outlawed. If the local PD did that to me for smoking a little pot, I wouldn't waste my time with a 7 year legal battle... without going into details.. heads would roll and I would be dead. I'm surprised more people just let the authorities get away with this kind of thing... man up and take a few of them out and they'll maybe rethink this practice. What's a person's life worth if they know they'll get retaliation for what amounts to legalized theft? I have little respect for corrupt people and would have no remorse if I was crossed and they were in the wrong.
Thankfully I do keep my nose clean and am on good terms with local PD.. I just let stories like this get me fired up when I shouldn't. The media does that to people.. gets them to react when you really don't know the whole story...
Trump's stand on the issue has lowered my regard for him... this single issue could get me voting democrat in the next election.
So Portugal decriminalized but did not make totally legal all drugs. They chose to treat it as a health issue instead. And frankly, not that I don't love being American, but our country can barely tolerate alcohol responsibly in comparison with most Europeans. Perhaps it's a culture thing. Even with Portugal's example, I still am not convinced it's the right answer for us. It does not appear many other countries followed Portugal either so perhaps there is something which sets Portugal apart or not being reported which keeps them from doing so - even those countries who closely align culturally with Portugal.
Portugal expanded their Universal Healthcare model to include substance abuse/ addiction.
Posession of small quantiles of drugs for personal use result in a summons. Offenders are required to report to and be evaluated by a medical board. Offenders may be fined, lose the ability to carry a gun, lose the right to travel and face personal property seizure
Drug trafficking laws/ consequences have serious consequences.
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The media does that to people.. gets them to react when you really don't know the whole story...
