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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
Government Property Seizures out of Control
Jarret Wollstein
Saturday, June 30, 2001
Across America, the Drug Enforcement Administration is seizing the luggage,
cash and cars of hapless travelers. Mere possession of a large amount of cash
or a drug dog barking at your luggage is sufficient probable cause for police
to legally seize everything you are carrying under America's new civil
forfeiture laws.
a.. In Albuquerque, N.M., in February 2000, DEA agents detained Sam Thach,
who was traveling on Amtrak from Fullerton, Calif., to Boston, and seized
$147,000 in cash he was carrying. Thach had no drugs. His crime? He had
bought a one-way ticket for cash and didn't give Amtrak his phone number. (1)
a.. The DEA seized $640,000 from Jennifer Leigh Ames while she was traveling
on Amtrak on April 5, 2001. Agents say she looked nervous and had refused
permission to search her luggage. (1)
a.. Former Newark, N.J., policeman Carlos Hernandez discovered police
searching his Amtrak sleeper cabin and demanding to search his luggage on
July 22, 1999. Hernandez's crime? He's Hispanic and paid for his $694 ticket
in cash. (2)
a.. At Houston's Hobby Airport, police stopped 49-year-old Ethel Hylton and
seized her luggage because a drug dog had scratched it. Agents searched her
bags and strip-searched her but found no drugs. They did find $39,110 in cash
from an insurance settlement and her life savings, accumulated through over
20 years of work as a hotel housekeeper and hospital janitor.
Ms. Hylton completely documented where she had gotten the money and was never
charged with a crime. But the police kept her money anyway. Destitute, she
had no way to fight them.
These outrageous seizures are completely legal and have been upheld by the
highest courts in the land, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
The DEA's Web site claims, "Property is seized by the DEA only when it is
determined to be a tool for, or the proceeds of, illegal activities such as
drug trafficking, organized crime, or money laundering." But the above
examples show the reality.
Under civil asset forfeiture, your property - not you - is charged with a
crime. Hence the bizarre title of civil forfeiture cases: "United States vs.
one 1998 Mercedes Benz," "California vs. 1711 Main Street," and so forth.
Once your property is charged with a crime, it can be seized and kept by
police, even if you are never convicted of anything. An appeals court in
Florida even ruled that police can personally receive bounties of 25 percent
of the value of anything they seize from you, such as your car, bank accounts
or home.
There are now more than 400 federal offenses and thousands of state and local
offenses for which your cash, car, bank accounts and home can be seized -
including shoplifting, hiring an illegal alien such as a maid (California),
playing a car stereo too loud (New York), transporting illegal fireworks,
gambling, having illegal drugs on your property, and merely discussing
violating any law ("conspiracy"), such as underpaying your taxes.
More than $1 billion in property is now seized without trial each year from
innocent Americans, according to the national forfeiture defense organization
FEAR (Forfeiture Endangers American Rights) (3). Seizures range from the
pocket cash of poor street people ... to the cars of men accused of
soliciting prostitutes ... to multimillion-dollar apartment buildings.
Once police seize your property, the burden of proof is on you to prove your
property's innocence. Any suspected illegal actions of your relatives,
guests, friends and employees on or even near your property are sufficient
grounds to seize it.
In Montgomery, Ala., police seized the home of 69-year-old Gussie Mae Gantt
after videotaping police informants buying drugs in her yard. Ms. Gantt had
previously called the police, complaining about drug-dealing in her
neighborhood, and had posted no-trespassing signs. The drug dealers wouldn't
stop - so police set up a drug deal and confiscated her home.
Easy Money for the Government
Once your home, car, and bank accounts are seized under civil asset
forfeiture laws, you can pretty much forget about ever getting them back.
It's you versus the police and courts, who divide up the proceeds from your
property according to formulas such as "80 percent for police, 20 percent for
the court."
If you want to fight seizure of your property, expect to spend at least
$15,000 just to hire a competent asset defense attorney. Also expect the
police to introduce hearsay evidence and to go through trial after trial,
because the normal constitutional protections afforded criminal suspects
don't apply to civil forfeiture of your property. (4)
With all of this easy confiscated money, asset confiscation is now big
business across America. In Volusia County, Fla., police seized more than $8
million worth of cars from motorists stopped for minor traffic violations
along Interstate 95. (5) In Alameda County, Calif., police auction off
hundreds of seized cars and boats every month.
The latest wrinkle in civil asset forfeiture is police working with Amtrak,
Greyhound, airlines and hotels to seize cash from travelers. The Albuquerque
Journal reports that Amtrak gave the Drug Enforcement Administration access
to its booking system in exchange for 10 percent of any monies seized by
police.
The DEA has similar deals with airlines at major airports and many hotel and
motel owners in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other large cities. DEA agents are
now permanently stationed at major airports and hotels.
So, the next time you pay for an Amtrak ticket, airline flight or hotel room
in cash, don't be surprised if you get a knock on your door from
machine-gun-armed DEA agents.
Sources:
(1) "Railway Bandits," Reason, July 2001, p. 14.
(2) "Railway Bandits," Reason, July 2001, p. 15.
(3) Forfeiture Endangers American Rights, www.fear.org.
(4) An analysis of U.S. asset forfeiture laws, with extensive legal
citations, can be found in the book "Your House is Under Arrest," by Brenda
Grantland, one of America's leading asset defense attorneys. Copies are
available from ISIL, 707/726-8796, www.isil.org. Another excellent source is
"Forfeiting Our Property Rights," by U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.
(5) Orlando Sentinel, Aug. 2, 1992.
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