What cha gonna do when they come for you?
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 09:18:06 -0500 From: Dave Kuehne dkuehne@erols.com
I *know* what I'm gonna do! --DaveK--
Forwarded Message From: North444 North444@aol.com
This is so incredible, I've got to forward to you, even at the risk of alarming many of my dearest friends. We all have to learn of this Forfeiture business, as it's spreading beyond just the Feds to the states... note the part where there are now some 300 (THREE HUNDRED!) crazy laws by which they can swipe 'most anything you have. And one other thing I learned recently on internet (can't prove it, but do believe it) -- a large percentage of our money bills have drug scent on them, can be sniffed out by dogs -- and could be CONFISCATED by the law. For more, go to http://www.fear.org
Have a nice day! ---ELN ----------
Attachment From: Jim Strode theduke@swcp.com
I would say the line is drawn,in Amerika, what cha going to do when they come for you. Proof the Constutition is gone, Bill of rights flushed. We see it in every State, cars, homes, guns, and our kids.
====Jim===
Subj: Civil Asset Forfeiture Gone Gestapo? From: GRLR (Charles Miller) by way of: NewsViewz NewsViewz@aol.com Step Away From Your House, Ma'am!!! Civil Asset Forfeiture Gone Gestapo? By Charles Miller In the early hours of the morning there was a heavy "bang, bang, bang" noise knocking on the elderly 75 year old mother's front door. She peeked through the age-worn curtains to see who was there, unaware that she was about to enter Hell in the federal world law of Civil Asset Forfeiture. Seeing about twenty men in suits and uniforms gathered around her house, and a large television camera scanning the scene, she was terrified why all of these men were there. Only dressed in her thin nightgown, she said through the door, "What do you want?" An FBI man replied back.."We are here to seize your house!" The elderly mother said, "Well, where am I suppose to go?" After she heard him say, "We don't care where you go, but you have a half hour to pack up and get out", her normally uneventful days would never be the same for the next several years. Unable to ever recoup from the nightmare of the forfeiture squad, she finally couldn't take the financial and public ruination of this event any longer, and ended her life. What did she do to deserve this horrific, un-American, Nazis-like treatment? Six years previous, her youngest son rented one of her adjacent rental properties and sold some marijuana out of it. Anything he touched was tainted in the mindset of these dutiful, officer-friendly men. It mattered not that the law admitted she was not part of his pot-ring conspiracy. There were no charges against her personally...only against her properties. She was free to go.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is okay to seize property from innocent owners because there is no innocent owner provision in federal civil asset forfeiture law, and the charges only need be against their property. Furthermore, the government does not have to give you a hearing, trial or prove anything in a court of law in order to do this. For a simple speeding ticket you are entitled to a trial with proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but to seize your house, car, cash, business, or anything tangible merely suspected of wrongdoing, it can be done on as little evidence as hearsay. It has encouraged legal plunder on a Federal, State, and Local basis. Numbers are mounting on misplaced funds and other unintended applications. Congress needs to stop making laws which include thinking that citizens are the only ones capable of wrongdoing or making mistakes. There should be no property forfeiture until after a criminal conviction, and even then only assets used or obtained illegally. Our U.S. Constitution protects our property rights in all cases except in forfeiture. The theory in this law, initially intended for rightly taking the ill-gotten gains of real criminals, has evolved into civil-charge use that is becoming out of control. Forfeiture stems from medieval Biblical times, like when an ox gored someone the ox was sacrificed and put to death. England used it to seize ships from Pirates, because the pirate couldn't show what else he was using the ship for. This Country moved it off the high seas and brought it inland to be used in crime control. Most citizens today, clamoring to the government to stop crime, do not realize the tempting misuse of authority that has been written into the fine print of this law.
Since 1984, numerous attempts have been tried by champions of the cause to reform it, such as by Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois, but in every step of the way, the Justice Department and other law enforcement lobbyists sandbag the effort. Why? Because it is a legal way to take money and boost short- budgeted agencies. Recent memos of Janet Reno obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that this Clinton Administration appointee is now asking federal prosecutors to accelerate forfeitures even more to help make up for a 40% decline in money which was previously available to the Department. This will dawn on new young prosecutors as a way to further their careers. In 1997, in Henry Hyde's HR1965 forfeiture reform bill, the Justice Department insisted that the bill also include... No Probable Cause before seizing property for forfeiture. Sponsorship by nearly all liberal and conservative groups for Hyde's initial HR1965 efforts which would have helped matters a great deal, were quickly and publicly dropped when this sudden change came about in a non-public meeting with the Justice Department. What happened for sure, nobody out here knows. It is a sad day in our wonderful Country when everybody agrees on some good changes, except those appointed to protect us. The federal statutes on forfeiture have grown from about 100, to now over 300 in the past several years. It has become so popular that State and local law enforcement agencies are dressing up their department's laws similarly. Many of you have heard of the cases in Florida and Louisiana where people are stopped and relieved of the cash in their pockets if the officer deems the money guilty. The point is, this can be done without a hearing or a trial, and there is no innocent owner provision. Allow a friend to use your boat ? If Fish and Game find a fish in your boat one inch under the size limit, your boat can be history even if you did not authorize the wrongdoing. Many law examples of it's use are on a website at http://www.fear.org along with a huge volume of other information on it. Florida recently dropped the ball on an all-approved forfeiture reform bill which outlawed any forfeiture without a criminal conviction. Word has it that pressure from the top law enforcement agent in the State did it. When a press conference is held on the final approval, questions will only be allowed to be asked on the provisions of the final one, not on the provisions that were dropped from it which would have protected us from this tyranny-like law. Isn't that ingenious? Congress has held numerous hearings about the abuse of this law, has admitted it is their fault for allowing it to continue, and still nothing gets done. How many more mothers with bad kids are going to lose their homes? How many frugal immigrants on the highway shall be relieved of their cash because an officer knows he doesn't have to prove anything? It isn't just time to only write about this to your email friends, it is way past time to also start screaming at your Congressman. Until it starts costing them votes.... nothing will get done. For a reference article, the Wall Street Journal printed an excellent explanation of property forfeiture laws in it's December 29, 1997 editorial page.
ICE ice@coolmedia.net http://www.coolmedia.net/ice/ **********************************************
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