This State Just Outlawed Civil Forfeiture… More to Follow

Be prepared for the next great transfer of wealth. Buy physical silver and storable food.

investmentwatchblog.com / Submitted by IWB, on April 22nd, 2016

From Justin Dove, Editor, The Crux:

Civil forfeiture is what some people call “policing for profit”… and it allows the police to take your property whether or not you’ve done anything wrong. They don’t even have to charge you with a crime.

As we’ve reported here at The Crux, there were more civilian assets seized by police in these civil forfeitures in 2014 than all reported burglaries…

Bill Bonner shared a few shocking examples on The Crux back in June of last year:

In one recent instance, a young man called Joseph Rivers was taking the train from Detroit to California, hoping to start a new music video company. He took with him his life savings – $16,000, in cash.

But the lucre was just too filthy for the DEA to resist. After boarding Rivers’ train at the Albuquerque Amtrak station, searching its passengers, and discovering the cash in his bag, they simply took it from him.

The Washington Post covered the story:

The agents found nothing in Rivers’ belongings that indicated that he was involved with the drug trade: no drugs, no guns. They didn’t arrest him or charge him with a crime. But they took his cash anyway, every last cent, under the authority of the Justice Department’s civil asset forfeiture program.

And it’s not just potentially suspicious-looking kids either, as Bonner continued…

In another case, a couple had $118,000 seized from their bank account.

Their crime?

None. They were merely the targets of money-hungry agents from the U.S. Secret Service because their small business required them to make many cash transactions.

The agents took the money under the civil asset forfeiture rules, which empower government employees to take first and ask questions later.

The couple spent years battling to get their money back. By the time the courts finally ordered the feds to hand back the cash, the couple had spent $25,000 on lawyers – money the feds refused to reimburse.

All there has to be is “suspicion” that the property (not necessarily the person) is attached to criminal activity.

The cops then funnel a portion of the assets into their own coffers through something called the “Equitable Sharing Program.” They use it to pay for “approved agency expenses.”

On March 30, the Department of Justice announced that it was reinstating the questionable Equitable Sharing Program after suspending it in December.

But it looks like states are starting to fight back…

Yesterday, we learned Nebraska lawmakers outlawed civil forfeitures in the state – joining a small but growing number of states outlawing the controversial practice. From Forbes:

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts signed a bill on Tuesday that eliminates civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize and keep property without filing charges or securing criminal convictions. The bill, LB 1106, passed the unicameral legislature last week by a vote of 38 to 8.

Civil forfeiture has ensnared a wide swath of victims in Nebraska. A Peruvian pastor once had $14,000 seized during a traffic stop. Only after the local chapter of the ACLU intervened was he able to recover his cash. Last year, a federal appellate court upheld forfeiting more than $63,000 in savings from a decorated Air Force veteran, even though he was never charged with a crime.

The newly signed law provides sweeping reforms. First and foremost, Nebraska now requires a criminal conviction to forfeit property. The accused must be convicted of an offense involving illegal drugs, child pornography or illegal gambling to lose their cash, vehicles, firearms or real estate. Nebraska joins just nine other states that require a criminal conviction as a prerequisite for most or all forfeiture cases. Following North Carolina and New Mexico, Nebraska is now the third state largely without civil forfeiture. In addition to the criminal conviction requirement, LB 1106 also enacts new reporting requirements for seizures and forfeitures.

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