Felony Friday: Philadelphia Police Seize Family Home Without Homeowners Being Charged
Did you know it is possible for the government (local, state, or federal) to take away your house or your car without you ever having committed a crime?Authorities are able to do this by utilizing civil forfeiture laws. Laws vary in each state, some states require the individual whose property is being confiscated to have committed a crime, but many do not.The civil forfeiture laws are especially terrible in Pennsylvania. In one recent case the Philadelphia Police were able to seize the dream home of a hard-working family because their twenty-two-year-old son had been arrested for selling $40 worth of heroin. The cops claimed that the young man had been selling heroin out of the house. The parents asserted that they had no idea their son was dealing drugs out of the family’s house, but that is irrelevant to civil forfeiture cases in Pennsylvania. The cops took the house anyway.Fox 31 reports:
Police and prosecutors came armed with a lawsuit against the house itself. It was being forfeited and transferred to the custody of the Philadelphia District Attorney. Authorities said the house was tied to illegal drugs and therefore subject to civil forfeiture.In two years, nearly 500 families in Philadelphia had their homes or cars taken away by city officials, according to records from Pennsylvania’s attorney general.Authorities use a civil forfeiture law that allows them to seize people’s property when that property is connected to the sale of illegal drugs.CNN legal analyst and civil attorney, Brian Kabateck, who has represented clients in civil forfeiture cases says the law is intended to protect the public. “It discourages crime and it takes the ill-gotten gains away from the bad people.”But not all people who have their property taken away are charged with a crime. Unlike criminal forfeiture, the civil law allows authorities to seize property without the owner ever being convicted or even charged.
We have reported on instances of civil forfeiture previously at Lions of Liberty. In a March edition of The Morning Roar, Marc Clair discussed the use of Civil Forfeiture by a Nevada police officer to steal $50,000 during a traffic stop outside Las Vegas. In that instance no charges were filed and not even a traffic ticket was issued.How on earth did a supposedly “free society” come to adopt laws that go against the very fiber of liberty?The Institute For Justice describes how civil forfeiture laws work in effectively the opposite manner as the judicial system is intended to operate.
Pennsylvania has terrible civil forfeiture laws. The government can civilly forfeit property by a preponderance of the evidence showing that the property is related to a crime and subject to forfeiture, a standard significantly lower than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard required for a criminal conviction. And property owners, not the government, bear the burden of proof in innocent owner claims, making property owners effectively guilty until proven innocent. Worse still, all of the money seized by law enforcement agencies and forfeited ultimately makes its way back into their hands. The money is first distributed to the district attorney and state Attorney General, and, under the law, they must use it for enforcement of drug laws. Pennsylvania law enforcement officials take advantage of the commonwealth’s broad forfeiture laws. In just a three-year period (2000-2002), more than $20.2 million in currency, vehicles, real estate and other property was forfeited.
Proponents of civil forfeiture laws claim it acts as a deterrent to crime and they assert it serves a purpose by removing “illegitimate” property (acquired while operating outside the government’s regulated system) from the marketplace. In reality, police officers are probably most influenced by civil forfeiture laws. The laws entice officers to seize property because one way or another the funds from the seized property make it back into the hands of law enforcement.It seems like common sense to be opposed to civil forfeiture laws because they violate individual rights and property rights. In essence, civil forfeiture laws state that you do not own your property. A law that allows property to be confiscated without due process has no place in a society that values humane behavior between individuals. The thuggish civil forfeiture law must go!Hopefully, we’ve reached a point in time in this country and throughout the world that civil forfeiture laws will be voraciously opposed and not accepted by a populace that values protecting property rights and individual rights.Check out our past editions of Felony Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
