"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
The American Nightmare That Is Civil Asset Forfeiture
Being innocent does not matter. Not being arrested or convicted of a crime is no protection. With amazing ease, the government can take everything you own. And to recover it, you must prove your innocence through an expensive and difficult court proceeding in which a severely lowered standard of evidence favors the government. This is civil asset forfeiture.
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Windsor Heights is a small suburb of Des Moines. It is said that if you are not white, driving a Chrysler and voting Republican you will be stopped by funny but dangerously armed clowns in costumes with tin badges as you drive through Windsor Heights. You'd better know what you're doing, 'cause those kids will try to shake you down for anything you have. Then, when you get to "court" down at the county court house you'll be shook down again by a little beady-eyed "judge" who "hears" only Windsor Heights traffic allegations. You will be "found" guilty.
All police patrol cars in Windsor Heights bear bumper snickers that say something like: "This Car Paid For By Forfeited Assets". I'm often tempted to ask one of the young guys or gals suited up as "police" if they're proud to wear the overt label of "thief" for all to see.
But Mama always admonished me to leave sleeping dogs lie.
I came into being just after state predators ended alcohol prohibition. It had
occurred to them they could steal more openly and easily ("tax") with less flak if they simply legalized alcohol (the vast majority of "public opinion" [ha ha] agreed). Plus they needed revenue to augment the inflation they were administrating to fund the war they were manipulating "us" into. This was before the gangster Roosevelt discovered he could steal all the gold from "the citizenry", making inflation much more accommodating.
The "War-On-Drugs" was genius for the thieves and predators of state. They could steal AND subjugate citizens; many of whom, like sheep to the shearing pen, cheered them on. "Gotta go after them child-molesting drug dealers! Yes sir ree, Bob!" Few indeed could see that "drug dealers" were created and kept in place by government edict. They could "win the drug war" tomorrow by simply letting Walgreens and other merchants market drugs.
Never, never try to make sense out of the egregiousness of representatives of monopoly state.
Sam