Comments
by Scoper...
House! Police! Freeze!
Just when you thought it
couldn't get any crazier…
From the Albuquerque Tribune,
August 23, 2000:
"Teens who get liquored
up when their parents aren't home could inflict some severe damage on the
folks' financial assets under a measure approved…by the City Council.
The bill would allow the
city to seize a home where underage drinking is a chronic problem."
(What
constitutes a "chronic" problem"? And who decides? One kegger? Two? Three?
Two quiet parties and one loud one? Seems as though the "decision-makers"
can make up the rules as they go along.)
We've come a long way, baby.
But I suppose it was inevitable. After all, we've spent an entire decade
(the "whiny 90's") proclaiming that nothing is our fault, that it must
be someone else's fault. Now in the "odometer year" of 2000, we've done
it one better. It's an "inanimate object's" fault! I must admit, as convoluted
logic goes, this perversion of reason does have a touch of élan.
Now, (in Albuquerque at least)
when you violate under-age drinking statutes, your HOUSE is guilty, and
will be seized by the authorities! The reasoning is quite simple, says
City Councilor Brad Winter: "Underage drinking is a big problem in our
city."
So THAT'S where it's a big
problem! I rather thought that it was scattered around most of the cities
in these United States. It must be especially horrible in Albuquerque,
though, because now people's homes are being held, literally for ransom.
(Say, isn't homelessness also a prob…never mind.)
The truly bad news is that
this is just the latest, most outrageous example of the ongoing trampling
of individual rights in America, known generically as "asset forfeiture."
Apart from nausea, it brings to mind a quote most of us probably read in
school:
"The right of the people
to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated."
Constitution of the United
States, Bill of Rights, 4th Amendment.
A much more recent quote
carries less weight, but ties right in:
"If people don't know anything
about the Constitution, they're not likely to get too upset when politicians
violate it." (Cathy Young, Detroit News.)
If there was ever a shining
example of Government good intentions gone bad (and they've had some dillies)
it would have to be Forfeiture Laws. For years, the Federal and various
State governments have been able to seize property without charging anyone
with a crime. And once they've got it, they get to keep it, even (and especially)
if the accused is acquitted. It's a multi-billion dollar cash windfall
for various law enforcement agencies, and if you've had at least one cup
of coffee you're probably considering right now the potential for abuse,
the damage done to innocent people and the ruining of their very lives
through this "legalized theft." It's all there, and more.
According to a group called
"F.E.A.R." (Forfeiture Endangers American Rights,) almost 4/5 of the property
seized through these means is taken from people who have not even been
charged with a crime. "Bankers, landlords, restaurant and other business
owners are losing their property." For the cops, it's a multi-billion dollar
windfall. Problem is, they're mostly not taking it from the "robbers."
Nor are they protecting your safety and mine.
Quite the opposite, in many
cases. Did you know that a majority of the $20 bills in the world have
at one point passed through the drug trade? And that if you're in an airport
carrying a wad of cash for travel expenses, a drug dog can sniff out the
cocaine residue on the bills and they can be confiscated? That's the forfeiture
law. The money was once used in illegal activity and now it's in your pocket
and you must be guilty of something. You'll go through a nightmarish
court system, but even if they cut you loose, good luck getting your money
back. They just don't do that, you see.
There are ancillary laws
as well. In North Carolina, a repeat drunk-driving offender can have his
car confiscated. But what if it's not his car? What if it's a friend's
car, driven without permission, or borrowed when the lawbreaker was sober?
The car is still taken, the equivalent of robbing an innocent person of
anywhere from $5 thousand to $20 thousand dollars. But that's the "greater
good" mentality. The same reasoning could be used to fire a pump-action
shotgun into a crowd of people. You're bound to kill some criminals. The
rest must be sacrificed because of the "War On…" [insert your favorite
pestilence here]
THAT'S WHY WE HAVE A FOURTH
AMENDMENT!
Jeez Louise, I can
attack one problem while creating another, bigger problem. And I'll do
it for half the money you're paying the present crop of bureaucrats.
Actually, I can't. Because
I couldn't live with myself if I did. But most of the people in Government
today don't have that problem. Gee, aren't we lucky?
Scoper
Find more information
at: www.FEAR.ORG. It's
a non-profit organization, dedicated to helping American citizens whose
property has been illegally seized.
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