FORFEITING RIGHTS

Absurd Scare Tactics Against HB 1404 Seek To Support An Indefensible Policy

At best, the feeble arguments against a measure to rein in the state's
civil asset-forfeiture power - currently wielded even against people who
are merely suspected of drug-related or other crimes - have amounted to
pleas by law enforcement not to deprive them of a lucrative source of
revenue as well as a fall-back in fighting crime. Which is to say, the ends
justify the means.

Never mind that those means result in a trespass by the state against basic
property rights and a presumption of guilt rather than innocence -in other
words, a thorough convolution of American justice.

And, as noted, that's the best that House Bill 1404's critics have been
able to come up with.

The worst surfaced Friday, in the form of an anonymous press release
circulated, it turns out, by Denver-based lobbyists -the sum of which would
have been funny if it weren't so intellectually insulting.

"HB 1404 GIVES DRUG DEALERS, PIMPS AND PROSTITUTES MORE RIGHTS THAN OTHER
CITIZENS IN CIVIL COURT," screamed the one-page fax.

"CRACK HOUSES, METH LABS AND HOUSES OF PROSTITUTION WILL BE MUCH MORE
DIFFICULT, IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE, TO CLOSE IF HB 1404 PASSES," blared another
all-uppercase passage. And then there was, "HB 1404 WILL INCREASE THE
LIKELIHOOD THAT CRIMINALS WILL BE ABLE TO RETAIN THE FRUITS OF THEIR CRIMES."

The message - aimed particularly at lawmakers at the State Capitol, where
the full House is slated to vote on the bill Monday - is unmistakably
clear: Vote for this measure, and you consign Colorado communities to a
Wild West world teeming with bordellos, overrun by drug lords. Think,
Prohibition-era Chicago meets contemporary Colombia.

Of course, that scenario is preposterous, befitting a desperate campaign -
mounted in the wake of 1404's approval by a key House committee last week -
that is just plain ridiculous.

Giving drug dealers, pimps, etc., more rights than the rest of us?
Actually, 1404 would ensure those who are only suspected of crimes retain
the same rights as the rest of us. Crack houses and the like will be
impossible to close? Not if law enforcement simply does its job and builds
a case against them in criminal court. Make it easier for bad guys to keep
their ill-gotten gains? Not if they're actually shown to be bad guys.

What this long-overdue proposal, championed by conservative Republican Rep.
Shawn Mitchell of Broomfield, really seeks to do is to stop big government
from plundering presumed - not proven - wrongdoers of their private property.

Under the state's present, broadly written statute, law enforcement
agencies may file a civil action against suspected drug dealers and the
like - under civil procedure, the burden of proof is lighter than in a
criminal court of law - and take possession of cash, cars and even real
estate whether or not the suspects are convicted or even charged. The booty
is retained by the law enforcement agencies and, over the years, has wound
up funding not only other, unrelated police work but also pizzas, parties
and, in the case of one police department, an aquarium.

So, asset forfeiture serves two ends: It's a cash cow for police
departments and sheriff's offices and, more odiously, it offers a back-door
reprisal against criminal suspects just in case the state doesn't mount an
effective criminal case. Which is kind of the way you'd expect things to be
done in, well, Prohibition-era Chicago or contemporary Colombia.

Under 1404, police in most cases no longer could take take property unless
a suspect is convicted of a felony. Proceeds from property taken through
civil forfeiture no longer would go to the agency that seizes it. Instead,
most of it would be used to repay liens on the property in question,
compensate its innocent co-owners as well as crime victims, and cover costs
incurred by district attorneys' offices and courts. Good.

No one's proposing to take away law enforcement's power to seize the
property of those duly tried and convicted of crimes, just to prevent the
substitution of civil forfeiture for criminal justice.

Let's put an end to this cynical, insidious tactic. We urge the Pikes Peak
region's delegation in the statehouse to take a stand against
big-government, police-state tactic and to stand up for individual liberty.