-Caveat Lector-
----- Original Message -----
From: "Freedom Project" <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-Header@[127.1]>
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 9:52 PM
Subject: Everything You Thought Was Yours - BELONGS TO THE GOVT
>
> Government Property Seizures Out of Control
> Jarret Wollstein
> Saturday, June 30, 2001
>
> Across America, the Drug Enforcement Administration is seizing the
> luggage, cash and cars of hapless travelers. Mere possession of a
> large amount of cash or a drug dog barking at your luggage is
> sufficient probable cause for police to legally seize everything you
> are carrying under America's new civil forfeiture laws.
>
> In Albuquerque, N.M., in February 2000, DEA agents detained Sam
> Thach, who was traveling on Amtrak from Fullerton, Calif., to
> Boston, and seized $147,000 in cash he was carrying. Thach had no
> drugs. His crime? He had bought a one-way ticket for cash and didn't
> give Amtrak his phone number. (1)
>
> The DEA seized $640,000 from Jennifer Leigh Ames while she was
> traveling on Amtrak on April 5, 2001. Agents say she looked nervous
> and had refused permission to search her luggage. (1)
>
> Former Newark, N.J., policeman Carlos Hernandez discovered police
> searching his Amtrak sleeper cabin and demanding to search his
> luggage on July 22, 1999. Hernandez's crime? He's Hispanic and paid
> for his $694 ticket in cash. (2)
>
> At Houston's Hobby Airport, police stopped 49-year-old Ethel Hylton
> and seized her luggage because a drug dog had scratched it. Agents
> searched her bags and strip-searched her but found no drugs. They
> did find $39,110 in cash from an insurance settlement and her life
> savings, accumulated through over 20 years of work as a hotel
> housekeeper and hospital janitor. M s. Hylton completely documented
> where she had gotten the money and was never charged with a crime.
> But the police kept her money anyway. Destitute, she had no way to
> fight them.
>
> These outrageous seizures are completely legal and have been upheld
> by the highest courts in the land, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
>
> The DEA's Web site claims, "Property is seized by the DEA only when
> it is determined to be a tool for, or the proceeds of, illegal
> activities such as drug trafficking, organized crime, or money
> laundering." But the above examples show the reality.
>
> Under civil asset forfeiture, your property - not you - is charged
> with a crime. Hence the bizarre title of civil forfeiture cases:
> "United States vs. one 1998 Mercedes Benz," "California vs. 1711
> Main Street," and so forth.
>
> Once your property is charged with a crime, it can be seized and
> kept by police, even if you are never convicted of anything. An
> appeals court in Florida even ruled that police can personally
> receive bounties of 25 percent of the value of anything they seize
> from you, such as your car, bank accounts or home.
>
> There are now more than 400 federal offenses and thousands of state
> and local offenses for which your cash, car, bank accounts and home
> can be seized - including shoplifting, hiring an illegal alien such
> as a maid (California), playing a car stereo too loud (New York),
> transporting illegal fireworks, gambling, having illegal drugs on
> your property, and merely discussing violating any law
> ("conspiracy"), such as underpaying your taxes.
>
> More than $1 billion in property is now seized without trial each
> year from innocent Americans, according to the national forfeiture
> defense organization FEAR (Forfeiture Endangers American Rights)
> (3). Seizures range from the pocket cash of poor street people ...
> to the cars of men accused of soliciting prostitutes ... to
> multimillion-dollar apartment buildings.
>
> Once police seize your property, the burden of proof is on you to
> prove your property's innocence. Any suspected illegal actions of
> your relatives, guests, friends and employees on or even near your
> property are sufficient grounds to seize it.
>
> In Montgomery, Ala., police seized the home of 69-year-old Gussie
> Mae Gantt after videotaping police informants buying drugs in her
> yard. Ms. Gantt had previously called the police, complaining about
> drug-dealing in her neighborhood, and had posted no-trespassing
> signs. The drug dealers wouldn't stop - so police set up a drug deal
> and confiscated her home.
>
> Easy Money for the Government
>
> Once your home, car, and bank accounts are seized under civil asset
> forfeiture laws, you can pretty much forget about ever getting them
> back. It's you versus the police and courts, who divide up the
> proceeds from your property according to formulas such as "80
> percent for police, 20 percent for the court."
>
> If you want to fight seizure of your property, expect to spend at
> least $15,000 just to hire a competent asset defense attorney. Also
> expect the police to introduce hearsay evidence and to go through
> trial after trial, because the normal constitutional protections
> afforded criminal suspects don't apply to civil forfeiture of your
> property. (4)
>
> With all of this easy confiscated money, asset confiscation is now
> big business across America. In Volusia County, Fla., police seized
> more than $8 million worth of cars from motorists stopped for minor
> traffic violations along Interstate 95. (5) In Alameda County,
> Calif., police auction off hundreds of seized cars and boats every
> month.
>
> The latest wrinkle in civil asset forfeiture is police working with
> Amtrak, Greyhound, airlines and hotels to seize cash from travelers.
> The Albuquerque Journal reports that Amtrak gave the Drug
> Enforcement Administration access to its booking system in exchange
> for 10 percent of any monies seized by police.
>
> The DEA has similar deals with airlines at major airports and many
> hotel and motel owners in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other large
> cities. DEA agents are now permanently stationed at major airports
> and hotels.
>
> So, the next time you pay for an Amtrak ticket, airline flight or
> hotel room in cash, don't be surprised if you get a knock on your
> door from machine-gun-armed DEA agents.
>
> Sources:
>
> (1) "Railway Bandits," Reason, July 2001, p. 14.
>
> (2) "Railway Bandits," Reason, July 2001, p. 15.
>
> (3) Forfeiture Endangers American Rights, www.fear.org.
>
> (4) An analysis of U.S. asset forfeiture laws, with extensive legal
> citations, can be found in the book "Your House is Under Arrest," by
> Brenda Grantland, one of America's leading asset defense attorneys.
> Copies are available from ISIL, 707/726-8796, www.isil.org. Another
> excellent source is "Forfeiting Our Property Rights," by U.S. Rep.
> Henry Hyde, R-Ill.
>
> (5) Orlando Sentinel, Aug. 2, 1992.
>
>
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