If you’re an American, the government can’t take your stuff without a legal finding of wrongdoing on your part. That’s what most Americans believe but they’re wrong. The government can, and does, confiscate citizens’ property without legal proceedings or even an allegation of wrongdoing.
I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago in my The TSA: Keeping Us Safe From Cash post. This sort of thing even has a name: asset forfeiture. A better, more accurate name, is piracy. You’d think it would be rare but according to the Washington Post it’s anything but:
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? pic.twitter.com/jS6zv9xtsa
— Erik Brynjolfsson (@erikbryn) April 18, 2021
Just think about that. The government is stealing more from Americans than burglars do.
The original intent was to prevent criminals from profiting from their crimes but has since morphed into a way for law enforcement agencies to fund their operations. The situation is so out of control that many states are passing legislation outlawing the practice and groups like the Institute for Justice have filed (and won) several cases on behalf of the victims. Real justice would be seizing the budgets of those agencies as the proceeds of criminal activity. That won’t happen, of course, but at least we can hope that state legislators and the courts will put an end to this reprehensible practice.