Article from FLN Staff.
Republicans tend to be critical of civil forfeiture, and are urging former Alabama senator and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions, to roll back the practice that he supports. “With care — we’ve gotta be careful — and professionalism, we plan to develop policies to increase forfeitures,” Sessions said in July.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who wasn’t buying it, told Fox News that in America, “you should be innocent until proven guilty and your property shouldn’t be taken without a court trial.” Sen. Paul continued, “The fact that Attorney General Sessions is going all-in on this really is offensive to a lot of us who have been trying to reform this situation.”
Fox reported the story in Sessions’ own state of Alabama, where a car dealer, who was alleged to have taken drug money for cars, had over $24,000 confiscated from him, and his reputation ruined by local prosecutors; his business was ruined, and the ordeal cost him $300,000. Such cases have become all too common, as many state and local governments have come to rely on the practice as a revenue stream like it was just another tax.
The practice was originally meant to recapture drug money but has morphed into organized theft by the state against people in blatant violation of their right to due process, as many cases occur without a trial. There are proposed laws in the states to roll back such abuses, but the Attorney General himself should refrain from abusing the powers of the federal government to violate the property rights of Americans, and intervene against such abuses in the states.
wpDiscuz
If a businessman (whether he is a car dealer, a realtor, the owner of a burger joint or whatever, makes no difference to me) knowingly takes drug money as payment for goods and/or services, he has coming to him whatever the consequences of his poor judgment are,
How would he know? This is a really stupid idea,
I totally agree! The narrative above says the car dealer was ALLEGED to have taken it. You do not confiscate his property and ruin his livelihood over an Allegation! The money may have been from his savings or other honest source.
You investigate first.
Pierre Plauzoles: “If” is the biggest two letter word in the English language… the car dealer in question was “alleged” to have taken drug money for cars; in this country you are supposed innocent until proven guilty… civil forfeiture without proof of a crime being committed is a crime in and of itself as in blatant theft… get a life and perhaps some better functioning neurons… good grief…
He needs to be proven guilty before he is penalized. It’s called innocent until proven guilty.
In Florida the situation is different. A drug dealer comes to the U.S. and in about five years he earns enough money to purchase Three (3) homes all of which are fully financed by a foreign bank but the mortgage is secured by 100% cash deposits. The three homes were worth about $700,000.00, the court returned the homes to the bank because “He (the drug dealer) wouldn’t have access to his money to pay an Attorney. First he is an auto mechanic, I’ve never known one that made that kind of money, His mother living on Food Stamps and social support lived in a $200,000 house, his wife and child living similarly lived in a house worth about $250,000, He and his girlfriend and their child lived in another $250,000 oh, yes she and her son were receiving Food stamps and other support. The Bank never reported deposits in excess of $9,999 and they were never challenged. We have to take back our Country before we don’t have a Country.