[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.When you land at the Ontario airport, U.S.Drug Enforcement Agency(DEA) agents accuse you of drug trafficking, handcuff you, and take you to thelocal jail.Your bail is set at $1 million.The next day it s lowered to $250,000,then to $10,000.Three days later, they release you with no indictment.When you go to theairport to get your plane, a DEA agent says the plane and the $8,500 in cash nowbelong to the federal government.It turns out that Randy Sullivan was apreviously convicted drug dealer named Albert Wright, and the governmentclaims the boxes of financial records contained $2,795,685 in cash although you re never shown any evidence of that.The Guilty Escape, the Innocent SufferYou are innocent; you ve broken no law, but you have a lot to fear.You velost your airplane and $8,500 of your income.How can this happen?Since 1970 government agents federal, state, or local can seize any ofyour property they suspect may have been involved in any way in a crime.You don t have to be the one who committed the crime, and it could be thatno one is ever convicted of a crime or even charged with one.Governmentagents don t even have to prove that your property was used in a crime.Theymerely have to assert probable cause a suspicion.In other words there arevirtually no limits on their ability to seize your property and keep it.Henry Hyde points out that the first modern law containing asset forfeitureprocedures was the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of1970.It provided only for the forfeiture of property used to make or exchangedrugs.The 1978 Psychotropic Substances Act allowed money and other valuablethings to be forfeited if they were connected to a crime in any way.The 1984Comprehensive Crime Control Act expanded the concept further to encompassany real estate connected to a drug crime.The 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act added 58 Harry Browne / Why Government Doesn t Workall proceeds of money-laundering.Amendments passed in 1990 broughtcounterfeiting and financial crimes into the circle.25And in 1992 Congress added just about every other offense imaginable,including car theft, and allowed virtually any property to be seized.Anotherdemonstration that a government program will always expand to encompass farmore than originally intended.More than a hundred federal laws contain asset forfeiture provisions.Theyare used by the Drug Enforcement Agency, the IRS, the FBI, the Coast Guard,the Postal Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and WildlifeService, the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Department of Health &Human Services, the Food & Drug Administration, the Customs Service, theImmigration & Naturalization Service, and the Department of Housing & UrbanDevelopment.And over 3,000 state and local governments have their ownforfeiture laws.26These laws were first enacted as weapons against organized crime and large-scale drug operations.But (surprise!) they soon became something else opportunities for law-enforcement agencies to raise money to supplement theirbudgets.So now almost anyone can be a target.Potential guilt isn t as importantas the salability of the assets to be seized.Because the laws pretend it s the property that s tainted, not you, the Bill ofRights offers no protection.The rules of evidence are ignored; there s nopresumption of innocence, so you have to prove you aren t guilty; you can tdemand a jury trial; you can t confront the person who made the accusationagainst you; there is no court-appointed attorney (even if the government justbankrupted you); and your property can be taken without compensation.To recover your property, you must file a claim within 10 days of the seizureor give it up forever (no one is obligated to alert you to the deadline); and youmust post a bond equal to 10% of the property s value (even if the governmenthas seized all your bank accounts).27The guilty know all these things; so they take steps to keep their property outof reach.The innocent know little about such laws and are surprised andhelpless when the government moves in.This is why tough new laws aimed at crime always seem to hurt theinnocent more than the guilty.25Forfeiting Our Property Rights, page 24.26Forfeiting Our Property Rights, page 24.27National Review, February 20, 1995, page 36.These problems still exist, even afterthe Supreme Court put some limits on asset forfeiture procedures in 1993. Your Innocence Is No Protection 59As Congressman John Conyers put it in 1993, a law designed to give copsthe right to confiscate and keep the luxury possessions of major drug dealersmostly ensnares the modest homes, cars, and hard-earned cash of ordinary, law-abiding people.28In many counties of America today, sheriffs departments have become self-funding empires.They no longer have to beg money from the legislators,because asset forfeiture finances virtually everything they need.Suing the GovernmentBut back to our story.The DEA agents confiscate all your business records to search for evidenceof your drug dealing.Eventually, they realize they have no case against you.But they still won treturn your plane.They say you should have known who your passenger was andwhat was in his boxes even though you have no legal right to search him orhis cargo.Somehow, it s your duty to stop the drug trade, even though the government with over a trillion dollars of tax money at its disposal every year and the legalpower to coerce anyone can t stop it.The only way you can retrieve your plane is to sue the government at yourown expense.So that s what you do.The government resists arguing that it has the right to confiscate yourproperty even if it can t prove your guilt, so long as there is probable cause. And the fact that your plane flew near Los Angeles, an area known as a center of illegal drug activity, is probable cause.You testify that you never saw Albert Wright before in your life.But thegovernment produces someone who claims to have seen you with him in the fallof 1988.He says he recognizes you by your peculiar beard.But you didn t growthe beard until a year after he supposedly saw you, and you produce witnesseswho so testify [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.When you land at the Ontario airport, U.S.Drug Enforcement Agency(DEA) agents accuse you of drug trafficking, handcuff you, and take you to thelocal jail.Your bail is set at $1 million.The next day it s lowered to $250,000,then to $10,000.Three days later, they release you with no indictment.When you go to theairport to get your plane, a DEA agent says the plane and the $8,500 in cash nowbelong to the federal government.It turns out that Randy Sullivan was apreviously convicted drug dealer named Albert Wright, and the governmentclaims the boxes of financial records contained $2,795,685 in cash although you re never shown any evidence of that.The Guilty Escape, the Innocent SufferYou are innocent; you ve broken no law, but you have a lot to fear.You velost your airplane and $8,500 of your income.How can this happen?Since 1970 government agents federal, state, or local can seize any ofyour property they suspect may have been involved in any way in a crime.You don t have to be the one who committed the crime, and it could be thatno one is ever convicted of a crime or even charged with one.Governmentagents don t even have to prove that your property was used in a crime.Theymerely have to assert probable cause a suspicion.In other words there arevirtually no limits on their ability to seize your property and keep it.Henry Hyde points out that the first modern law containing asset forfeitureprocedures was the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of1970.It provided only for the forfeiture of property used to make or exchangedrugs.The 1978 Psychotropic Substances Act allowed money and other valuablethings to be forfeited if they were connected to a crime in any way.The 1984Comprehensive Crime Control Act expanded the concept further to encompassany real estate connected to a drug crime.The 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act added 58 Harry Browne / Why Government Doesn t Workall proceeds of money-laundering.Amendments passed in 1990 broughtcounterfeiting and financial crimes into the circle.25And in 1992 Congress added just about every other offense imaginable,including car theft, and allowed virtually any property to be seized.Anotherdemonstration that a government program will always expand to encompass farmore than originally intended.More than a hundred federal laws contain asset forfeiture provisions.Theyare used by the Drug Enforcement Agency, the IRS, the FBI, the Coast Guard,the Postal Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and WildlifeService, the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Department of Health &Human Services, the Food & Drug Administration, the Customs Service, theImmigration & Naturalization Service, and the Department of Housing & UrbanDevelopment.And over 3,000 state and local governments have their ownforfeiture laws.26These laws were first enacted as weapons against organized crime and large-scale drug operations.But (surprise!) they soon became something else opportunities for law-enforcement agencies to raise money to supplement theirbudgets.So now almost anyone can be a target.Potential guilt isn t as importantas the salability of the assets to be seized.Because the laws pretend it s the property that s tainted, not you, the Bill ofRights offers no protection.The rules of evidence are ignored; there s nopresumption of innocence, so you have to prove you aren t guilty; you can tdemand a jury trial; you can t confront the person who made the accusationagainst you; there is no court-appointed attorney (even if the government justbankrupted you); and your property can be taken without compensation.To recover your property, you must file a claim within 10 days of the seizureor give it up forever (no one is obligated to alert you to the deadline); and youmust post a bond equal to 10% of the property s value (even if the governmenthas seized all your bank accounts).27The guilty know all these things; so they take steps to keep their property outof reach.The innocent know little about such laws and are surprised andhelpless when the government moves in.This is why tough new laws aimed at crime always seem to hurt theinnocent more than the guilty.25Forfeiting Our Property Rights, page 24.26Forfeiting Our Property Rights, page 24.27National Review, February 20, 1995, page 36.These problems still exist, even afterthe Supreme Court put some limits on asset forfeiture procedures in 1993. Your Innocence Is No Protection 59As Congressman John Conyers put it in 1993, a law designed to give copsthe right to confiscate and keep the luxury possessions of major drug dealersmostly ensnares the modest homes, cars, and hard-earned cash of ordinary, law-abiding people.28In many counties of America today, sheriffs departments have become self-funding empires.They no longer have to beg money from the legislators,because asset forfeiture finances virtually everything they need.Suing the GovernmentBut back to our story.The DEA agents confiscate all your business records to search for evidenceof your drug dealing.Eventually, they realize they have no case against you.But they still won treturn your plane.They say you should have known who your passenger was andwhat was in his boxes even though you have no legal right to search him orhis cargo.Somehow, it s your duty to stop the drug trade, even though the government with over a trillion dollars of tax money at its disposal every year and the legalpower to coerce anyone can t stop it.The only way you can retrieve your plane is to sue the government at yourown expense.So that s what you do.The government resists arguing that it has the right to confiscate yourproperty even if it can t prove your guilt, so long as there is probable cause. And the fact that your plane flew near Los Angeles, an area known as a center of illegal drug activity, is probable cause.You testify that you never saw Albert Wright before in your life.But thegovernment produces someone who claims to have seen you with him in the fallof 1988.He says he recognizes you by your peculiar beard.But you didn t growthe beard until a year after he supposedly saw you, and you produce witnesseswho so testify [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]