Prove them wrong before you go taking people's stuff (Archibald/al.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

Alabama could rein in civil asset forfeiture

By John Archibald | [e-mail]
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on January 25, 2018 at 6:45 AM, updated January 25, 2018 at 11:30 AM

Prove it before you remove it.
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The Founders knew it. The People, too. We grew up as a nation believing we're all innocent until proven guilty, that property rights are inalienable. That a good government - of the people, by the people and ostensibly for 'em too - can't just come take your stuff on a hunch. Not without due process of law.
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Because in Alabama - and across this country - cops and prosecutors can take your property on the suspicion you did something wrong. They collect billions in seizures, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that old Alabama boy, has encouraged them to take more.

Even if you're never convicted of a crime. You have to prove you didn't do it in America today. You have to pay with your lawyers and your money and your life.

Reckon by AL.com's Connor Sheets has written much about the horrors of civil asset forfeiture, and the Southern Poverty Law Center and Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice published a study this month filled with humans and with numbers that make you wonder who the criminals are.
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more: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/01/imagine_a_state_where_cops_can.html

[RandomAccess]

1. Civil asset forfeiture is a BFD to me

It enrages me and I can't for the life of me understand why there's anything LIKE it anywhere in the U.S., with our 4th Amendment and all.

[Control-Z]

2. Yes.

Just ditto what you said.

[lancelyons]

3. Dems should make this an election issue.

Tie this entire thing to the GOP

[liberalmike27]

4. I was

actually a little proud of Alabama the other day, that they were actually thinking about passing a bill saying law enforcement couldn't steal from you.

The statement is almost ludicrous, on the face of it.

[EarthFirst]

5. 4.9 million in FY14, 2.2 million in FY16,

“They stole my daughter's - at the time she was just a little girl maybe six, seven years old - they stole her money that she had in the top drawer of her dresser in a piggy bank, $70...”

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/when_the_police_keep_your_stuf.html

Law enforcement keeps 100% of these forfeitures.

Including a six-year-olds piggy bank money...