When Did ‘To Serve & Protect’ Become ‘To Seize & Profit?’

[Coyotl]

When Did ‘To Serve & Protect’ Become ‘To Seize & Profit?’

How police across the country are using civil asset forfeiture to seize people’s houses, cars and cash to make money for their departments.
Jesse Lava and Sarah Solon
October 29, 2013 - http://www.thenation.com/article/176874/when-did-serve-protect-become-seize-profit

Leon and Mary Adams had been living in their Philadelphia home for nearly five decades. They were eating breakfast one morning last year when armed cops streamed out of a bunch of vans and said the couple had 10 minutes to grab their things and leave. Permanently. As in, Leon and Mary wouldn’t be allowed to come back. The cops then seized the property so they could auction it off, all because the Adams’ grandson allegedly did a few $20 marijuana deals on the porch.

This is just one of the many stories Sarah Stillman told in The New Yorker this summer about a “process” called civil asset forfeiture. And it’s not just happening in Philadelphia; it’s happening nationwide to people’s houses, cars, cash and other property that cops seize and sell to make money for their departments. See how it works in our latest video in the Prison Profiteers series, a partnership between Beyond Bars, the ACLU, and The Nation magazine:

Oct 28, 2013
Police officers are forcing people to choose between time behind bars or turning over their money and property -- all without ever making an arrest. Fight civil asset forfeiture abuse. www.aclu.org/policing-for-profit #prisonprofiteers

[msongs]

1. "to protect and serve" = the police union and its members nt

[Moosepoop]

18. It's the police unions that keep the money?

I wouldn't think so, but maybe you can explain it.

[Wounded Bear]

2. I think it coincides with declaring war on drugs....

Not sure how you declare war on a thing, but we seem to be good at it.

[haikugal]

8. Yep...

in the 80's...it was easy to see if you had eyes to see and a working brain. That was also when our rights were rescinded, but it was for a good cause eh? Yeah, like the war on terrorism....sure.

[Wounded Bear]

9. Also coincides with privatizing the prison system....nt

[haikugal]

11. Funny how that works....

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. K&R Started in the '80s and accelerated in the '90s.

[Rex]

4. Evidently it means to "protect and serve" bad cops as best they can.

They would rather have a rotten apple on the force, then admit they have a rotten apple on the force.

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. In 2002, we saw cops literally shoot down the front door of a house in our neighborhood.

A home owned by a 60-something year old couple (who had the nicest kept lawn in the neighborhood) who kept to themselves. Apparently, they had a marijuana plant in their basement. They took them away, dressed in pajamas. They lost everything.

[NYC_SKP]

6. As I recall, it started in the 1980's. First came SWAT teams in the 1970's, then Reagan.

What with all that weaponry post-Viet Nam that needed to be sold to keep friends of congress in business, we needed ways to use it.

The war on drugs became a handy excuse and then seizure became a convenient form of funding.

Sad and sick.

[Coyotl]

7. It really started with Nixon declaring war on his political enemies.

And it still is a political wart on the left and on the counter-culture movement generally. Millions and millions of voters have been disenfranchised and the outcome of national elections have been altered as a result. The strategy works really well for the republicans. Without it, Gore would have been elected.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

24. All that funding is the reason for pot not being legalized.

It's a cash cow.

[bemildred]

10. The drug War, basically.

There are always corrupt cops, but without the high-grade cabbage, it doesn't get like this.

[gopiscrap]

12. fucking cops really are pigs!

[AnotherMcIntosh]

13. Maybe the Obama Administration and the DOJ are unaware of this.

Otherwise they would do something to stop this.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. +1

[Garion_55]

14. I honestly believe that most criminals are better people

then todays law enforcement fucks.

[Nay]

16. Since when? Since about 30 years ago, when forfeiture laws started being

used against nearly anybody who had anything of worth that the cops and judges decided they wanted. Because the cops got to keep the plunder.

Now, what could possibly go wrong with that idea???

[Populist_Prole]

17. Around the same time that

The PTB changed their mantra from "Trust Us" when they need our political support to "Fuck off" after they got it and no longer need us.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

19. When Poppy Bush was VP and "drug czar" he pushed the search & seizure laws.

He may not have invented the concept but that's when it really took off.

[secondvariety]

20. Thanks, Reagan.

You unholy shit.

[pitbullgirl1965]

21. I blame the war on drugs,

and the unswerving belief that Law Enforcement can do no wrong. I feel this somehow ties into our jingoistic worship of the military too, but I can't articulate it.

Cute story: after 9/11 everyone's car had the yellow ribbon sticker on it. Except for my friend Bonnie: she got the major stink eye from other drivers for not having one.

[RosettaStoned77]

22. Ever watch COPS?

I don't know why, but it seems to always be in Florida. They set up these small-time, dime bag buy busts and the take people's cars. Laughin in their faces, acting like heros. Fucking sickening!

[lpbk2713]

23. Law enforcement has been a "for profit" enterprise for some time now.

It's all about revenue now.

[Demo_Chris]

25. I believe much of this was launched during the first Bush and Clinton years. nt