COPS SEIZE CASH IN DRUG WAR RUSE

It's a proud day for law enforcement. The Birmingham News on June 8
printed a story about the Hoover Police Department pulling over some
female motorists for going too slowly and fortuitously discovering
that they were involved in the horrible crime of carrying too much
"inexplicable" cash.

We need to examine what's really going on here.

Under the ruse of the War on Drugs, a system has been established for
certain "crimes" that presumes perpetrators are guilty, allows their
property and/or assets to be stolen from them and leaves the onus on
them to establish their innocence. This totally upends our supposedly
cherished innocent-until-proved-guilty system, and it should terrify
anyone.

It's a well-documented fact that local, state and federal law
enforcement have used and abused this system to pillage the citizenry
for their own gain. It's vexing and infuriating to think people can
have their property and assets seized from them under the auspices of
suspected criminal activity, yet be charged with no crime, then be
dared to come and prove it's indeed theirs.

We have given our law enforcement carte blanche to participate in this
activity. Shame on them. And even more, shame on us as a society for
believing that this is acceptable.

They say you don't notice that trouble is ahead if the water is boiled
slowly well, it's coming to a boil and seemingly we are commenting on
how pleasant the water is. We're allowing this, even touting this.
Shame on all of us!

Paul A. Hosier

Center Point