From the article:
In Pennsylvania, the City of Brotherly Love is far and away the most aggressive in the state when it comes to people’s property. Over a four-year period, Allegheny County, the second largest county in Pennsylvania, filed about 200 petitions for civil forfeiture. Philadelphia filed nearly 7,000 petitions in one year alone, according to the class action lawsuit, in which the Sourvelises are plaintiffs, along with other Philadelphia citizens.
Philadelphia officials seized more than 1,000 houses, about 3,300 vehicles and $44 million in cash, totaling $64 million in civil forfeitures over a 10-year period, according to the lawsuit.
The very authorities taking the property appear to be profiting from it, according to Pennsylvania state records. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office says about $7 million went straight to the salaries for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office and the police department in just three years. In that same time period, records show the D.A.’s office spent no money on community-based drug and crime-fighting programs, according to the Philadelphia AG’s office.
Filed under: General Problems
Outrageous!
I remember they started CAF to use against the drug cartels. But I suppose since that source has dried up here in the US since they got smart and stayed in Mexico now, unlike the Columbians who used to work from Columbia and have homes here, they had to find another source to justify continuing filling their coffers. As the story showed, all the money went straight to the pockets of the prosecutors…geez that sounds like outright theft to me.
Nice post Steve. The news Anchor says at very end of the video segment: “unbelievable I’d never heard of that………” REALLY? CAF has only been around for decades now. …….in a 1994 study published in the journal Justice Quarterly, criminologists J. Mitchell Miller and Lance H. Selva found that several police agencies delayed making busts of suspected drug houses until most of the drug supply had been sold. They waited until the drugs had already hit the streets so that they could maximize their forfeiture bounty. [source]: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/tennessee-asset-forfeiture_n_2933246.html
I noticed this story, [link below on MN reform] awhile back and posted it (somewhere?). At any rate, I file this under the category of better late than never. Leading the way in combating LE’s strong armed tactics, that would make Mussolini blush, is the state of MN. Here is a link about MN state law restricting this perversion and attack upon US citizen’s rights, and the very foundation of liberty and freedom that this country was founded upon.
http://watchdog.org/163956/minnesota-civil-asset-forfeiture/ Fortunately other states are following suit and working towards similar reforms. UNFORTUNATELY this does nothing to stop FEDERAL CAF.
We DO know that CAF is used to undermine a criminal defendant and his (see physicians) ability to put up a defense.
“We believe the main purpose in the government’s use of civil forfeitures is to shut down the alleged criminal and make it so he or she cannot hire an attorney to defend the person(s) accused. This does, unfortunately, often work” [source]: http://thehealthlawfirmblog.wordpress.com/category/civil-forfeiture/