Aggressive police are taking hundreds of millions of dollars from Americans not charged with crimes – they are seizing cash and property simply based on suspicion alone. Photo: thefreethoughtproject.com
2014 was a great year for cops, financially anyway. According to Institute for Justice, for the first time ever, law enforcement officers took more cash and property from American citizens than burglars last year.
Most Americans don’t realize it’s possible, but using what’s called civil asset forfeiture, cops can take cash and property from people – without convicting or even charging them with a crime. If cops simply suspect that you acquired something as a result of illegal activity; they can take it from you. You want it back? You have to prove that you got it legally.
Based on suspicion alone – the police can seize your cash and property. And thanks to cops helping themselves to just about anything they want, including donuts we’re assuming, the Treasury and Justice departments deposited more than $5 billion into their funds in 2014.
Burglars can hardly keep up; they only managed to steal $3.9 billion worth of our stuff last year.
This is the unofficial logo of our DEA’s asset forfeiture program, “You make it, we’ll take it.” Photo: Fred Rupp
But these are only the federal totals, they don’t reflect how much property is seized by state and local police each year. It’s estimated that for all 50 states, the total amount of assets “stolen” by our police tops $250 million in 2013 alone.
It’s a tough economy out there, and when money is tight cops start seizing a lot more assets.
In a tight economy, police turn to their suspicions and can use them to seize your cash and property. It’s then up to you to prove that you obtained your stuff legally. Last year they stole more than all burglaries in this country – way more than $3.9 billion worth of goodies.
Since 2008, thousands of local and state police agencies have made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under this asset forfeiture program. According to the Washington Post:
The program has enabled local and state police to make seizures and then have them adopted by federal agencies, which share in the proceeds. The program allows police departments and drug task forces to keep up to 80 percent of the proceeds of the adopted seizures, with the rest going to federal agencies.
To make matters even dicier, asset forfeitures by police have more than doubled during President Obama’s tenure.
So the next time you’re thinking about how fast the response time really would be if someone was breaking into your house and you called 911, maybe you should be worrying more about what the cops may seize once they arrive.
CUFBI is here to help. Here’s some tips on how to keep the DEA from taking all your cash and property.
