DRUG DEALERS ARE THE PREDATORS ON TODAY'S SOCIETY

In his Nov. 26 letter, Robert Sharpe criticized law enforcement officers as
"financial predators" when using asset forfeiture laws in drug cases. He
whines about forfeitures based on "vague allegations, without bothering to
charge owners with a crime." Hogwash. Pursuant to federal statutes, the
United States must prove in court that property to be forfeited is either
the proceeds, or was used to facilitate the commission, of an illegal act.
Moreover, an "innocent owner" can challenge the forfeiture in court.

Asset forfeiture is not the summary disposition Sharpe alleges.

See Title 10 of the US Code, Sections 981-985 and title 28, US Code Section
524.

The authority of governments to take criminals' ill-gotten gains or items
used to commit crimes is not new. When property is obtained by violating
the law, the law recognizes no right of the criminal to possess that property.

Legally, the criminal has lost nothing, because criminals are not entitled
to ownership of "criminal" property in the first place. And this makes sense.

Why should the good citizenry allow Sammy Cravens to keep seized currency
and a vehicle he admitted were obtained as a result of, and used in, his
drug dealing? There is a certain degree of poetic justice underlying the
return of a drug dealer's money and vehicle to law enforcement to use in
their dangerous and often thankless job of fighting drugs.

I don't apologize one iota for augmenting taxpayer dollars with
forfeitures, which the U.S. Supreme Court has called "powerful weapons in
the war on crime. . . ."

Sharpe also criticizes the war on drugs and suggests drug decriminalization
because law enforcement has not eradicated all drug use.

We should turn our head to rape, robbery, and murder because those crimes
also continue? Baltimore's "progressive" former mayor stopped their drug
enforcement efforts based on Sharpe's logic and quickly turned that city
into the nation's drug hellhole.

His successors realized his error and now face a much more difficult task,
re-engaging drug dealers with the vengeance needed for simple metropolitan
survival. Law enforcement, by itself, can never succeed completely against
drugs, but statistics, experience and common sense tells us that law
enforcement efforts against illegal drugs are much-needed and highly
effective deterrents.

The rest of the solution will be found in reducing drug demand through
increased education, parental involvement, and community and faith-based
initiatives.

Rest assured that extraordinary local, state, and federal agents will
continue to work together -- sharing their resources, expertise, knowledge,
skills, and forfeited drug property -- in the fight against this cancer in
our society.

Kasey Warner Charlestson

Warner is the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia.