-Caveat Lector-
>From www.eden.com/~reporter/99.6.edit.html
EDITORIAL
Stop Asset Piracy
One of the ways the War on Drugs has frayed civil liberties in the
United States is in the expansion of civil asset forfeiture scams run
by law enforcement authorities. In their zeal to stop the drug trade,
police are empowered to seize cash, cars, homes, computers and other
assets which they believe might be used in illegal commerce. They do
not need to submit to the niceties of a court hearing. They do not
even need evidence that the seized assets actually had any connection
to drug trade. The police can seize cash from people who fit their
"profile" of a drug dealer, even if they do not find any drugs on the
suspect. Only about 20% of these suspects are even charged with a
crime, but to reclaim the assets, they have to post a bond and prove
in court that the money or other assets was not connected with drugs
or other illegal trade.
This is big business: The U.S. Justice Department's Assets Forfeiture
Fund received $338 million in 1996, the last year for which
statistics are available, and state and local agencies have seized
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets since the mid-1980s.
And asset forfeiture is not limited to drug cases. Federal agents can
now seize property under 200 different statutes, and local
governments have started seizing cars of people suspected of such
misdemeanors as soliciting prostitution and driving while
intoxicated. Many local law enforcement agencies have come to rely on
seized assets to help finance their activities and to limit their
accountability to city councils and county governments.
One of those who ran afoul of asset forfeiture was Willie Jones, a
landscaper who was waiting to board a flight from Nashville to
Houston in February 1991 when he was stopped by police who were
alerted because he was a black man who had paid cash for his airline
ticket. When Jones was found to be carrying $9,600 in cash, which he
planned to use to buy landscape materials in Houston, the police
seized the money, reasoning that it must have been the proceeds from
a drug transaction, although he had no criminal record.
The police let Jones go but they kept the money. It took more than
two years before a federal judge ordered Jones' money returned.
There are numerous other examples of black and Hispanic travellers
being victimized. "Racial profiling on our nation's roads and at our
airports is an increasingly well-chronicled problem," said Rachel
King, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. But
you don't have to be a minority to run afoul of asset forfeiture
pirates. The ACLU has compiled a list of asset forfeiture abuses
(available on the Internet at www.aclu.org). It includes:
* Anchorage, Alaska -- Kip Baker was staying at a friend's home when
federal agents showed up at the door and informed him that his friend
was involved in a marijuana-growing network and the government was
taking the house and its contents. Baker was never charged with a
crime. However, agents seized his ivory collection, the heirloom
diamond ring off his finger, and the gold nugget from around his
neck. He was informed that federal law required him to prove they
were acquired legitimately. After a year and a half of fighting
bureaucracies, a federal prosecutor informed him that the government
had sold his possessions.
* Malibu, California -- Donald Scott, a 61-year-old millionaire who
owned a 200-acre ranch was shot and killed on October 2, 1992, by
federal agents who had burst into his home to serve a warrant to
search his ranch for evidence of marijuana cultivation. After a
lengthy investigation, Ventura County District Attorney Michael
Bradbury concluded that the slight evidence of marijuana cultivation
given to the judge in support of the warrant contained misstatements
and omissions which invalidated the warrant. Ironically, it was later
revealed that Scott was "fanatically antidrug." The District Attorney
issued a statement concluding that law enforcement had been
interested in the value of the ranch because they were motivated by a
desire to forfeit the property. The U.S. Park Service, who also took
part in the raid at Scott's home, had been pressuring Scott to sell
his ranch to add the land to the adjacent Santa Monica Mountains
National Recreation Area, but Scott had repeatedly refused offers for
as much as $5 million dollars.
* South Dakota -- Gary and Kathy Bergman had their home seized after
a houseguest was found with marijuana. After a three hour search of
the house, federal agents found a trace of pot and a marijuana butt
in a car outside belonging to the Bergmans' daughter. Even though
neither of the Bergmans was charged with a federal crime (Gary
pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor state charge) the federal
government seized the entire house as the presumed tainted property
of a drug ring. The Bergmans have been allowed to stay there under an
occupancy agreement. However, their front and back doors post signs
stating, "No trespassing by order of U.S. Marshall."
* South Houston, Texas -- The Red Carpet Inn was seized by federal
agents in February 1998 after patrons were accused of drug
trafficking. Although prosecutors admitted the government was not
accusing the motel owners of participating in illegal activity and,
in fact, motel personnel called police to the establishment dozens of
times to report suspected drug-related activity, the government
claimed the hotel deserved to be seized because management had
"failed" to implement all of the "security measures" dictated by law
enforcement officials, such as raising room rates to discourage drug
traffickers.
* Washington D.C. -- A 72-year-old woman's home was seized by FBI
agents and D.C. police officers when her nephew, who was staying
there overnight, was suspected and later charged with drug dealing.
More than 15 FBI agents, armed with what appeared to be automatic
weapons, placed the nephew under arrest and began searching the
house. After handcuffing the woman, they took all of her televisions,
VCRs, family photos, personal papers, and an automobile. It took 12
police officers to tear the built-in television set out of the wall.
One of the police officers was caught on camera saying: "How do you
like your new house?" The warrant was based on an informant's claim
that he made a drug deal with the nephew on the front porch years
earlier.
U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is
sponsoring HR 1658, which would drastically reform the unfair
practice of civil asset forfeiture in the United States. Co-sponsors
include John Conyers, D-Mich., Bob Barr, R-Georgia, and Barney Frank,
D-Mass. The Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act would force the
government to prove that seized property is related to a crime,
protect owners of property used by someone else to commit a crime,
and remove the requirement that property owners post a bond to
contest the seizure in court. The bill does not eliminate civil asset
forfeiture, but it's a step in the right direction.
This is the third time Hyde has filed such a bill. In 1997 a version
of Hyde's bill got out of the Judiciary Committee, but only after
Drug War enthusiasts transformed it so that it actually expanded the
government's authority to seize property even when there was no
probable cause to believe the property was forfeitable.
Strike a blow for the embattled Fourth and Fifth Amendments, which in
plain English protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures"
and states that no person shall be "deprived of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law." Contact your Congress member,
particularly if he or she is on Judiciary, and urge support of a
clean version of HR 1658.
While the House Republican leadership continues to stall the Shays-
Meehan bill, which would enact modest campaign finance reforms, Sen.
Paul Wellstone, DFL-Minn., has reintroduced the "Clean Money, Clean
Elections" bill that would provide public financing for candidates
who voluntarily forgo private contributions and agree to strict
spending limits. Similar legislation has been enacted at the state
level through ballot initiatives in Arizona, Maine and Massachusetts
while Vermont passed it through the state legislature. Rep. John
Tierney, D-Mass., is the House sponsor. Make sure your congressional
rep signs on to the "gold standard" of campaign finance reform. --
Jim Cullen
-- Jim
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