Through a highly controversial and little known law, the government and law enforcement actually took more property from citizens last year than was actually stolen in robberies.
Last year, for the first time ever, police and government agents actually took more personal property from American citizens than actual burglars did. It happens every day because police and government agents can take private property from any citizen through a law known as civil asset forfeiture.
The civil asset forfeiture law is extremely controversial while at the same time being ridiculously simple. The law states that any police officer or government agent can seize personal property if they suspect it may have been obtained illegally. There is no burden of Habeas Corpus on them. There is no burden of charging someone with a crime and presenting evidence in a court of law. There is only suspicion.
That’s it. They say that if they suspect that someone’s stuff was obtained illegally and they can take it. Also, the government and the police don’t have to prove anything either, according to The Washington Post. If a citizen wants their stolen property returned, they have to prove how they got it and that it wasn’t acquired through illegal means like what was suspected in the first place. The burden of proof no longer rests with the government.
According to the Institute for Justice and FBI Crime Reports, government agents and police took over $5 billion of the personal property of American citizens last year. According to those statistics, burglars only stole $3.5 billion.
A recent report issued by The Huffington Post found that most Americans have never even heard of civil asset forfeiture. These statistics by the FBI and the Institute for Justice are said only to reflect that property taken by government agents and agencies. They said that their 2014 statistics don’t include what is taken by state and local police every year. There is no reported reliable data for such things. The Institute of Justice did report that $250 million was taken by state and local police in just 14 states in 2013.
The government does mention that some of the seized property is returned to victims, and the Institute of Justice said that last year’s total actually reflected $1.7 billion judgment against Bernie Madoff. Most of that, they claimed, was sent to victims of Madoff’s pyramid scheme.
