Jeff Sessions wants police to take more cash from American citizens

Jeff Sessions wants police to take more cash from American citizens
It's time for another installment in the ongoing saga of the Swamp Creature known as Jeff Sessions. This time he wants to ramp up asset forfeiture from police. The VERY unpopular policy that police across the nation do where they steal property from citizens just because. For many states you don't even need to be convicted of a crime for it to happen either.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday said he'd be issuing a new directive this week aimed at increasing police seizures of cash and property.

“We hope to issue this week a new directive on asset forfeiture — especially for drug traffickers,” Sessions said in his prepared remarks for a speech to the National District Attorney's Association in Minneapolis. "With care and professionalism, we plan to develop policies to increase forfeitures. No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime. Adoptive forfeitures are appropriate as is sharing with our partners."

Asset forfeiture is a disputed practice that allows law enforcement officials to permanently take money and goods from individuals suspected of crime. There is little disagreement among lawmakers, authorities and criminal justice reformers that “no criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime.” But in many cases, neither a criminal conviction nor even a criminal charge is necessary — under forfeiture laws in most states and at the federal level, mere suspicion of wrongdoing is enough to allow police to seize items permanently.

This should get anyone's blood boiling. Asset forfeiture is out of control. Obama did a little bit to curb it, but not nearly enough, and this bozo wants to roll even those gains back.

Here's some fun stats:

In 2014, federal law enforcement officers took more property from citizens than burglars did.

Since 2007, the Drug Enforcement Administration alone has taken more than $3 billion in cash from people not charged with any crime, according to the Justice Department's Inspector General.

And finally I'm going to leave you with the most notorious case:
How police took $53,000 from a Christian band, an orphanage and a church

The 40-year-old Texas man, a refugee from Burma who became a U.S. citizen more than a decade ago, was heading home to Dallas to check on his family. He was on a break from touring the country for months as a volunteer manager for the Klo & Kweh Music Team, a Christian rock ensemble from Burma, also known as Myanmar. The group was touring the United States to raise funds for a Christian college in Burma and an orphanage in Thailand.

Eh Wah managed the band's finances, holding on to the cash proceeds it raised from ticket and merchandise sales at concerts. By the time he was stopped in Oklahoma, the band had held concerts in 19 cities across the United States, raising money via tickets that sold for $10 to $20 each.

The officers ended up taking all of the money — all $53,249 of it. "Possession of drug proceeds," the property receipt reads. But they let Eh Wah go. They didn't charge him with a crime that night, instead sending him back on the road about 12:30 a.m., with the broken tail light.

If you didn't read all that. That is a story where the police stole $53,000 raised through donations from a Christian Rock band that was earmarked to go to an orphanage in Thailand. In the end, they were forced to give it back, but only because this story made national news and the attention was too negative.

Civil asset forfeiture is theft plain and simple. Jeff Sessions supporting this policy change is just another mark in the "corrupt asshole" column. How do people still like this man?

a reply to: Krazysh0t


I never paid much attention to Sessions, until his testimony on trump where he blatantly did not answer more than half the questions. Anyway this man is assbackwards, his stance on pot, and now this. WOW......

a reply to: kurthall

Yes his stance on pot is what is really going to fix America.....

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Well, another way to consider it is if the police have more autonomy/freedom to take your money/possessions then they have less reason to shoot your for them. So from that vantage Session's is something of a humanist.

a reply to: Joneselius

People have differing opinions, that doesn't mean they are shills just because their opinion doesn't align with yours.

The fact that you attacked the poster instead of the information provided goes to show you are bringing am agenda with you in my opinion.

originally posted by: Wayfarer
a reply to: Krazysh0t

Well, another way to consider it is if the police have more autonomy/freedom to take your money/possessions then they have less reason to shoot your for them. So from that vantage Session's is something of a humanist.

Heh... It's a sad joke that you have to be happy with having your possessions stolen in lieu of catching a bullet...

originally posted by: Joneselius
a reply to: kurthall

Yes his stance on pot is what is really going to fix America.....

His stance on pot is ass backwards. It has been shown that legalization has decreased crime, and the revenue it is producing in places it has become legal is crazy!!! This man doesn't even want it legal for MEDICAL reasons!!! So yeah you want to talk down to me, go ahead...

a reply to: Wayfarer

Sounds like you're bending over backwards to justify and normalize this to me. If your only other option besides getting your stuff stolen is to get shot then something is seriously wrong there.

I have no problem at all with police confiscating the assets of convicted drug dealers.
They should be forced to donate the money to charity though.
But like every other rule or law somebody always abuses the system.

Whats to complain about ? Drug money , houses where drugs are sold , vehicles carrying illegal drugs , a person's freedom are all forfeit.
It is against the law
Most foreign liberals do not get the point of against the law
Foreign terminology to them..

Civil Asset forfeiture sucks, it sucked under obama, and bush and it will continue to suck into the future until its practice is banned.

Since the Fed seems to be upping the ante, we need to put pressure on the states to take steps to reign it in.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
confiscating the assets of convicted drug dealers.

That would be a lot more palatable to the population at large I would think. As it stands right now there is no conviction required. The police may seize assets they believed to be involved in a crime, whether it has been proven or not. It is the owner's responsibility after the fact to collect their possessions if it is later proven there was no crime (and also hopefully on the assumption the police haven't liquidated the asset - in which case their is no recourse to the owner other than to spend more money to sue and hope they recoup some small portion).

a reply to: Krazysh0t


When Obama was in office these same people that are supporting Trump and lambasting the OP, were crying about how unconstitutional the practice is, which it is, but now... Well now, Trump's boy is saying let the cops confiscate even more property for their slush funds when someone is simply suspected of a crime, and now it alright.

I would have thought some of their heads would explode with the conflict, but nah... They'll justify it instead.

originally posted by: Gothmog
Whats to complain about ? Drug money , houses where drugs are sold , vehicles carrying illegal drugs , a person's freedom are all forfeit.
It is against the law
Most foreign liberals do not get the point of against the law
Foreign terminology to them..

Right, because when Christian bands have over 50g's stolen because "drugs r bad," there should be nothing to complain about.

Because foreign liberals.

Lololol "anti-establishment"

originally posted by: Gothmog
Whats to complain about ? Drug money , houses where drugs are sold , vehicles carrying illegal drugs , a person's freedom are all forfeit.
It is against the law
Most foreign liberals do not get the point of against the law
Foreign terminology to them..

So it is ok that the Christian rock band had $53,000 stolen from them just because? Or according to you they are really drug dealers?

PS: I'm not foreign born... Not sure what that remark was about...

a reply to: redhorse

You will not find any post by this trump voter bashing Obama on the cops drug money confiscating.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
I have no problem at all with police confiscating the assets of convicted drug dealers.

And THAT'S the problem. Civil asset forfeiture doesn't require a conviction.

a reply to: Bluntone22


that's the thing they can confiscate WITHOUT conviction but on "suspicion" of crime.

could this apply to trump? lol