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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJeff Sessions wants police to take more cash from American citizens
By Christopher Ingraham July 17 at 3:32 PM
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday said he'd be issuing a new directive this week aimed at increasing police seizures of cash and property.
We hope to issue this week a new directive on asset forfeiture especially for drug traffickers, Sessions said in his prepared remarks for a speech to the National District Attorney's Association in Minneapolis. "With care and professionalism, we plan to develop policies to increase forfeitures. No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime. Adoptive forfeitures are appropriate as is sharing with our partners."
Asset forfeiture is a disputed practice that allows law enforcement officials to permanently take money and goods from individuals suspected of crime. There is little disagreement among lawmakers, authorities and criminal justice reformers that no criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime. But in many cases, neither a criminal conviction nor even a criminal charge is necessary under forfeiture laws in most states and at the federal level, mere suspicion of wrongdoing is enough to allow police to seize items permanently.
Additionally, many states allow law enforcement officers to keep cash that they seize, creating what critics characterize as a profit motive. The practice is widespread: in 2014, federal law enforcement officers took more property from citizens than burglars did. State and local authorities seized untold millions more.
Since 2007, the Drug Enforcement Administration alone has taken more than $3 billion in cash from people not charged with any crime, according to the Justice Department's Inspector General.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/17/jeff-sessions-wants-police-to-take-more-cash-from-american-citizens/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_sessions-seizures-340pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.03bab13f8903
Freethinker65
(10,024 posts)I assume we tax payers will be getting that money back, eh Jeffy?? You can have it back, if you come to trial and prove your innocence.
MedusaX
(1,129 posts)Forfeiture of assests seized by police.
This is step #2 in suppressing opposition, suppressing free speech, punishing opponents/competitors of govt pals....
Create fear that one will lose their possessions if they are brave or bold in their expressions or competes in business with those who are *connected*...
And it incentivizes the desire of local law enforcement agencies to act against their citizens
at the request of the federal or state political leaders....
All they have to say is that you are suspected of selling drugs...
& oh, look at all of these items that you must have bought with the money you got from the drugs you *probably* sold...
say buh-bye to your house, car, savings accounts, jewelry, cash, etc.
FFS
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)(With Natalia Veselnitskaya, imagine that coincidence!)
Gotta make up that cash somewhere, I guess.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/12/1680101/-Why-did-the-DOJ-abruptly-settle-Russian-money-laundering-case-with-attorney-at-center-of-collusion
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,033 posts)lpbk2713
(42,759 posts)It could cost you thousands of dollars in legal fees just trying to recover the
thousands of dollars they took from you. It's a stacked deck. You can't win.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)NOT TRIED AND CONVICTED.