DRUG WAR TAKES LIBERTY AS CASUALTY

Property Forfeiture Practices Should Unite Left and Right

Austin, Texas --- And in other news...the War on Drugs is ripping up
the Constitution, endangering American liberty and encouraging law
enforcement officers to act like bandits. The unpleasant ramifications
of the War on Drugs are too numerous for one column, but the area of
asset forfeiture deserves special consideration.

In a much noted case, a Detroit woman had her car seized after her
husband was found using it to dally with a prostitute. The Supreme
Court upheld the forfeiture, even though the woman was clearly not
involved in her husband's illegal activity.

A 72 year old grandmother in Washington D.C., lost her home after
letting a nephew, who was suspected of drug dealing, stay there overnight.

The owner of an air-charter business in Las Vegas lost his
livelihood when he unknowingly chartered a plane to a drug dealer.

Several years ago NBC's "Dateline" did a prize winning expose of
the practice of Louisiana sheriff deputies stopping motorists with
little or no cause and seizing cars and cash under the state's
forfeiture laws. The deputies started a slush fund with the money.
According to "Dateline", deputies used the fund to pay for a ski trip,
pizza and doughnuts. Thousands of dollars were unaccounted for,
"Dateline" said.

...According to the Wisconsin State Journal, all this started in 1984,
when Congress passed the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, which
allowed drug money and "drug related assets" to be funneled in to the
police agencies that seize them. Between 1985 and 1991, the Justice
Department collected more than $1.5 Billion in illegal assets; in the
next five years, it almost doubled this intake, according to a report
by the Nation magazine.

Local law enforcement agencies fight to "federalize" their drug busts
because if a U.S. Attorney "adopts" a forfeiture, 80% of the assets
are returned to local police, whereas under many state laws, forfeited
assets go to school funds, libraries, drug education or other programs.

This is also deforming the efforts to control drugs; police forces can
get far more money by busting small time marijuana buyers in reverse
stings (where the cops sell drugs to unsuspecting customers) and then
seizing their assets than they can by, say, going after
methamphetimine dealers who work on street corners.

This entire practice is rapidly becoming worse and worse, causing more
and more injustice, police lawlessness and distorted law enforcement
priorities. This is one of those times when the right and the left can
unite in opposition to government abuse. The American Civil Liberties
Union and the National Rifle Association have opposed these practices.
Rep. Barney Frank, the liberal Democrat, and Rep. Bob Barr, the
conservative Republican, both support reform. The Wall Street Journal
is as concerned as the Nation. Surely the property rights of people,
who seem to consider the Endangered Species Act a threat to liberty,
would like to join the ACLU on this one.

The political problem is that we have created a monster. Law
enforcement just loves asset-forfeiture laws; agencies have
practically become self-financing through these abuses. And when the
coppers of the nation stand in unison and say "We need this for law
'n' order," mighty few politicians are willing to go against them.
(Envision the ads in their re-election campaigns: "My opponent sided
with the drug dealers and against the police officers of our fair state.")

The only way to get the politicians to undo what they have done is to
build public pressure to stop this outrageous practice. Take pen in
hand.....