Policing for Profit - The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture

I found this great little video on you tube and I though I'd share it with the community here, in an effort to raise awareness about civil forfeiture.

Without watching the video, I can add that it is a policy I disagree with.

A guy I knew, his wheelchair bound grandmother lost her home because it was seized when she was raided by the police in a drug sting. She was caught with an ounce of marijuana. I'm not sure if she got her house back.

Another friend, his aunt lost her house because she rented it to a person who was raided in a drug sting, and possessed one marijuana plant.

Not only did they seize her home, board up the doors and windows as is customary in the seizures, but they also fined her. Being her house "she should have known what was going on".

She did get hers back, around 20k later, for something she had nothing to do with, outside of being the landlord.

EDIT TO ADD:

I forgot that my ex once when we were broke up, was staying with "friends" in a house that was raided, boarded and seized. I couldn't even get my children's photos and birth certificates from the house.

Here where I live, its basically nothing but abused. They do it with little to no evidence, or in situations like I've mentioned, where it hardly merits being seized, and one ounce or one plant hardly equals any type of "drug operation". Especially when in those cases it was for personal use.

Here, if you have the $ to go through the red tape you can most often get your house back. But it will generally cost around 20k, not to mention legal fees.

But, the meth houses are NEVER boarded up. They are deemed off limits, or not able to be inhabited until a licensed professional has cleaned it of harmful chemicals. It is then able to be (most often) rented again.

[edit on 8/5/2010 by ThaLoccster]