FORFEITURE IS A TOOL OF MEDIEVAL TIMES

Re: Police too addicted to lure of easy money, by Robyn Blumner.

- -- Thanks to Blumner for writing so persuasively about property forfeiture,
one of the linchpins of the drug war, that "other" endless war. Both wars
are perpetuated by public fear and official conflicts of interest, and both
are costing us cherished legal traditions.

Our elected officials alarm us about "drugs," about "terror," about
whatever, and begin building their careers countering that threat. While
most of them do have good motives, the effect of their taking of the
property of powerless people without bringing charges, much less a
conviction, sets us back to medieval times when the "king's men" had free
rein to control the king's subjects.

When Congress wrote the legislation to allow these abuses, they effectively
ended the "rule of law" we once took such pride in, and established the
"rule of men." It is happening so gradually and so rationally it is barely
noticed.