Go to the site and sign the petition, maybe we can get this thing done away with once and for all. Teo1000
SUPPORT H.R. 1658 TO REFORM CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE (5/14/99) -------- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE -------- (To sign off this list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the line "signoff drc-natl" in the body of the message, or mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. To subscribe to this list, visit <http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html>.) We're writing today to ask you to raise your voice to Congress on an issue of great and urgent importance. Under civil asset forfeiture, the government can take and keep the property of people who have been accused, but not convicted, of drug crimes, or whose property has been used without their knowledge to facilitate a drug crime; in 80 percent of forfeiture cases, charges are never even filed. The law is unjust and has had a profound corrupting effect on law enforcement. H.R. 1658, a bill with high-level bipartisan support -- Reps. Henry Hyde and John Conyers, chairman and ranking minority on the Judiciary Committee, and committee members Bob Barr and Barney Frank, will reform civil forfeiture and restore Constitutional due process of law. Please take two minutes to fill out our online forfeiture petition at <http://www.drcnet.org/forfeiture/>. Though it has strong support in the Judiciary Committee, H.R. 1658 is sure to meet resistance in the House, and needs support to get introduced and passed in the Senate. Nevertheless, it can be passed, this year, so your help is urgently needed. So please take action now! When you are done, please consider following up your Congressional e-mail with a phone call (phone number provided by our lobbying system), and then fill out our "tell your friends" form to spread the word about H.R. 1658. (We won't save your friends' e-mail addresses and won't send them any mail besides your referral.) Or just forward this alert to any interested parties and appropriate lists or forums. If you're not yet ready to act, maybe reading some asset forfeiture stories will help you make up your mind: * Kip Baker was staying at a friend's home in Anchorage, Alaska, when federal agents showed up at the door and informed him that his friend was involved in a marijuana- growing network and the government was taking the house and its contents. Baker was never charged with a crime, but agents seized his ivory collection, the heirloom diamond ring off his finger, and the gold nugget from around his neck. After a year and a half of fighting bureaucracies, a federal prosecutor informed him that the government had sold his possessions. * Juana Lopez was stopped by DEA agents outside a bus depot in New York City with $4,750 cash in her purse. After questioning, the officer realized he had previously arrested her husband for drug charges and told her she was free to go, but he would keep the money because a drug dog had reacted to it. Mrs. Lopez has produced receipts showing that all of her money was legally obtained; a third of the money was borrowed, another third came from the sale of some jewelry, and the rest came from her savings as a hair stylist. The money was earmarked to pay legal fees for her husband. * Ethel Hyton had $39,110 seized during a search by DEA agents at Hobby Airport in Houston. The agents searched her bags and ordered a strip search of Miss Hylton, but found no contraband. Police claimed a drug dog had scratched at her luggage, although Ms. Hylton never saw a dog. The money which Ms. Hylton had was a settlement from an insurance claim, coupled with her life savings, which was being used to buy a house. Please help stop the injustice of the government's legalized theft! H.R. 1658 will put the burden of proof back on the government, protect innocent owners, provide counsel to indigent forfeiture defendants, eliminate the "cost-bond" requirement for for defendants to put up money to challenge the forfeiture of their property, allow defendants to keep their property while a case is in process, and make the government responsible for damage it causes to property that gets returned to the owners. Please visit http://www.drcnet.org/forfeiture/ to tell your Representative and Senators to support H.R. 1658 and restore Constitutional due process of law! (The cases cited above came from the ACLU -- visit their forfeiture section, with links to further information, online at <http://www.aclu.org/action/assets106.html>. The Drug Policy Foundation has extensive information on H.R. 1658 and the asset forfeiture issue, online at <http://www.dpf.org/html/forfeiture.html>. And be sure to check out the nation's leading forfeiture reform organization, Forfeiture Endangers American Rights (FEAR), <http://www.fear.org>.) ----------------------------------------------------------- This message brought to you by the Drug Reform Coordination Network's rapid-response-team e-mail list. If you are not already subscribed to DRCNet, please visit our "quick sign- up" form at <http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html>. Help support DRCNet by making a donation or participating in the iGive online fundraising program. To pledge or give by credit card use our secure registration form at <http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html>. To designate DRCNet as your iGive recipient non-profit (absolutely free), visit <http://www.igive.com/html/ssi.cfm?CID=1060>, or go visit their main page at http://www.igive.com if you are already signed up to raise money for DRCNet.
