8 HN users recommended this commentary7 months2014–2024score 7
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN treats it as the standard accessible explainer on civil forfeiture, linked in nearly every thread about police seizures.
John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment on civil asset forfeiture, the process by which police can seize property they suspect is tied to crime. It explains how the property itself is put on trial and how departments profit.
“John Oliver did a great job of explaining Civil Forfeiture a few years back” (HN, 2023)
John Oliver did a great job explaining the problem this week on his show. Basically, Kane and Nestor might be innocent, but their money is on trial separately, as dumb as that sounds. [this video]
John Oliver explains civil forfeiture and why property is tried separately.
This is John Oliver's commentary on this issue. [this video] note: Not sure if we can post youtube videos here, but the commentary on the video very relevant to the topic
John Oliver's commentary directly relevant to asset seizure.
Civil forfeiture is really screwed up [1]. >So he basically loses them before he even can prove that they are his or not? Yes goods are guilty until proven innocent in court. >It seems to be a big loophole for the government to just go and steal whatever they want from you, before you've been proven guilty. It kinda is. Watch the link. [1] [this video]
Explains how goods are treated as guilty until proven innocent.
It's true, its un-american, and here's a video from John Oliver so you can learn more about this ongoing heinous practice the police use to prey on the poor and defenseless. [this video]
Learn more about police forfeiture preying on the poor.
Civil asset forfeiture is wild shit. John Oliver had a great episode on it: [this video] They make criminal accusations against your property and not against you, and because of that, you have no rights or recourse. This is just blatant nonsense under the US legal system, but that's kind of irrelevant. Civil forfeiture was introduced to take houses and cars from drug dealers as part of the War on Drugs, which was really started as war on minorities and hippies. The government wants to take stuff from drug dealers, so it gets to do it (see legal realism: [link] ).
Explains charges against property rather than people.
John Oliver did a segment on this - [this video] One thing that doesn't seem to be covered is how it changes the motivation to seize contraband, as it is much more profitable to wait until the contraband is sold and then seize the money.
I didn't find this listed, so obligatory Last Week Tonight with John Oliver link[0]. The extent to which authority figures intervene in normal citizen life in the US always seems like some medieval European feudal lord stuff to me. [0] [this video]
> a big loophole for the government to just go and steal whatever they want from you, before you've been proven guilty That's exactly what it is. It's truly terrible. [this video]
Supports claim forfeiture is government taking property before guilt.
It isn't only the incarceration rates that are problematic. For example the police can legally steal stuff/money - [this video] "civil forfeiture". Being on the poorer end of society leads to more adverse outcomes in the "justice" system. For people who have been incarcerated, getting back into society is hard since the system is not about rehabilitation. Recidivism rates are higher [link] Or on a more personal note, how about a 79 year old man with the early stages of alzheimers and dementia put in prison, isolated, and denied a phone call, access to lawyers or even being able to let anyone know this has happened for 3 months? Innocent until proven guilty doesn't even apply, let alone basic justice.
Example of police legally taking money from the poor.
Elephant in the room question: Is anyone really surprised by this turn of events? I thought it was common knowledge that the DOJ is irredeemably corrupt, that they don't care about the rights of their citizens (let alone human rights outside our borders) and that they cannot be trusted with anything. I always thought everyone knew that neither the FBI/NSA with their massive domestic spying campaigns, the DEA with its fallacious war on drugs, nor local police with their rampant violence (esp. towards minorities) can or should ever be trusted. Did people really not expect this outcome? Civil forfeiture really should have made the case that law enforcement is nothing but crooks and scoundrels. [this video] [link]
You wrote: "Most of this money comes from drug busts... not seized from John and Jane Doe for no reason" Yet, reports in the media [1] fit a common pattern: the officer encounters a person carrying several thousand dollars in cash, and takes it asserting it was drug related. This assertion doesn't require proof or even that the person involved be charged with a drug offence. [1] John Oliver, Last Week Tonight, Oct 5, 2014 / [this video]
Media report of officers seizing cash without charges.
Wild guess: Only because the data shown (in the article) goes back 10 years. As Civil Forfeitures started as part of the War on Drugs, I suspect it's been rising since the 1980's. The revenue from Civil Forfeitures are used to offset the recent (decade+?) decline in funding that local governments have. A recent segment on Last Week Tonite[1] on Civil Forfeiture highlighted local police using it as a way to shore up their coffers. Edited to add: Youtube Link [1]: [this video]
Because the government always trots out drugs and terrorism as the defense. Americans hate drugs and terrorists. Therefore we need to stop their funding! Fortunately this family of stories are getting more ink and video. John Oliver did a show on it. Local stories popup about small time business owner trying to buy a truck getting screwed. So we are seeing two things America likes hitting heads: fighting terror and small businesses getting screwed. [this video]
This has been a huge problem at the state, county, and municipality level, for many years. John Oliver did a piece about it, a few years ago[0]. Some places actually create budgets, based on forfeiture. There's a town in Texas, that basically set themselves up as "highwaymen"[1] (Would have been ironic, if the town was named "Turpin"). Gives a whole new meaning to "Quota Night." I remember reading about a person around these parts, that was unable to get their property back, after they were cleared, because the police department had already sold it. [0] [this video] [1] [link]
This happens all the time, property gets seized at the merest suspicion of crime (whether or not it was actually prosecuted) and is often not returned. Jon Oliver did a piece on it: [this video]
Man, civil forfeiture in the United States is really something else. This seems like a nightmare. Related video by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight regarding Civil Forfeiture [this video]
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