@RedOct,
There are literally hundreds of new state and local confiscation laws, your car, home, business, and bank accounts can be seized more easily than ever before.
The next time someone plays their car stereo too loud or commits a crime in your neighborhood, watch out: Under new local asset-forfeiture laws your property could be seized for the acts of criminals you have never met. It's called 'community responsibility' and it's one of the fastest-growing trends in asset-confiscation law. Here's how it works in Colorado Springs, Colorado:
According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, owners of businesses and other property in high-crime areas are now required to "abate crime" in their area. "Crimes" explicitly included in the new ordinance include prostitution, drug deals, drive-by shootings, and even playing a car stereo too loud.
What happens if property owners don't do enough to abate crime in the eyes of the police? Under the new ordinance, their businesses, homes and other assets can then be seized by police without any form of due process.
The Gazette explains, "Seizure would last a minimum of three months. To reopen, [a business] owner would have to prove no violations took place or that a remedy to the problem is in place" While the city controls the property, the owner would remain responsible for the mortgage, maintenance and other costs. If after one year the owner is not eligible to regain the property, the city could sell it. The city gets to keep the proceeds, and private homes can also be confiscated under this ordinance.
Colorado Springs Police Chief Lorne Kramer has promised that property would only be seized from owners who are 'not doing enough' to alleviate crime.
What the new "community responsibility" ordinance in Colorado Springs means is that ordinary citizens who are simply trying to live their own lives and make a living are being told that they must stop crimes that the police can't, or lose their homes and businesses.
A few years ago I joked that US civil asset-forfeiture laws – which charge property rather than individuals with crimes – were so absurd that if your car was stolen and then recovered, the police could keep your car as "guilty property." I'm not laughing any longer. This is precisely what these absurd new laws will do. The Colorado Springs ordinance is not an isolated case. Similar laws have been passed throughout the U.S. – and they're being enforced:
In New York City, police confiscated Mariscos del Caribe – a popular Puerto Rican restaurant – because one regular customer, Samuel Aponte Vega, was allegedly a drug dealer. At first the police claimed that Vega was the owner of the restaurant, but even when that was proved to be a complete fabrication, they still refused to return the property. The police argued it was the owners' responsibility to monitor and screen their customers. (See Brenda Grantland, Your House Is Under Arrest, pp. 72-74.)
In Montgomery Alabama, police seized the home of 69 year-old Gussie Mae Gantt after video-taping police informants purchasing drugs in her yard. Ms. Gantt had previously called the police, complaining about drug-dealing in her neighborhood and had posted no-trespassing signs on her property. But – not surprisingly – the drug dealers ignored her signs.
In Westminster, Maryland, police arrested Pamela Davis and both her son and daughter, after her daughter signed for a UPS package delivered to her home which turned out to contain marijuana. It was later revealed that the package had been mailed by the police, who wanted to confiscate her home – a large 18th Century farmhouse – for use as a police retreat. (See Brenda Grantland, Your House Is Under Arrest, p. 164.)
In California, under a new law that went into effect last year, entire businesses can be seized if the owners employ any illegal aliens – even if they don't know that they're illegal.
Under a new federal law, all property subject to federal civil forfeiture is now subject to federal criminal forfeiture as well. In plain English, hundreds of minor federal civil offenses have been turned into criminal offenses at the stroke of a pen. That means minor mistakes on Medicare forms, insurance applications, mortgage applications, and possibly even your tax return, could be used to seize your bank accounts or home!
The "crime" of money laundering was vastly expanded to include minor paperwork errors. What, you say you just forgot to declare $100 in an inside pocket of your wallet on the currency report you filed when leaving the U.S.? Too bad. All $4,100 you're carrying can now be seized.
If feds seize your property and you leave the US, you won't be allowed to challenge their seizure in court.
Asset Confiscation Continues To Expand
In the last 10 years, the number of federal offenses for which your property can be seized has increased from 200 to over 400. In addition, states, cities and local communities continue to pass new asset-forfeiture laws at a breakneck speed. Today there are thousands of local confiscation laws which didn't exist a few years ago. For instance, state laws have been recently passed allowing the seizure of cars for such "crimes" as transporting illegal fireworks, playing a stereo too loud, and driving on an expired license.
In his book, Freedom in Chains, James Bovard explains:"Many local and state governments actively target and confiscate cars of drivers who violate one of a rapidly-multiplying list of offenses. In 1996, Chicago suburbs enacted ordinances to authorize seizure of automobiles if a car radio is too noisy, or if the cars are being driven by teenagers out past 11:00 p.m. Detroit officials seized 3,000 cars in 1995 from drivers who allegedly used their vehicles for trysts with prostitutes. They even seized the cars of innocent owners who had no involvement or knowledge of the crime." (Freedom In Chains, pages 26 & 27).
Another big growth area for asset forfeiture is alleged environmental offenses. Again quoting Bovard: "The Office of Code Enforcement in Alexandria, Virginia, sent certified letters to 22 homeowners – threatening to condemn their properties unless they fixed chipping paint on their windowsills or door frames. In Skaneateles, New York, the local government responded to one couple's zoning violations by sending in sheriff's deputies to drag out and jail the owner's wife and raze their $350,000 lakefront home." (Lost Rights, p. 20).
More property than ever is being seized. Most states now have monthly police sales at which thousands of cars, boats, and other government-looted property is sold. At least $9-billion in assets has been seized from American citizens since the late 1970s. Most of the dispossessed were never charged with any crime.
Targeting doctors for confiscations: increasingly, government regulatory agencies have been seizing the offices, bank accounts and homes of independent doctors without any trial or hearing, for alleged violations of Medicare and other government health rules. These violations often consist of making mistakes on confusing government paperwork or charging "too much" for health care, where government bureaucrats decide after the fact how much is too much.
Confiscating your guns. Completely legal guns are now routinely confiscated by police whenever cars or houses are searched, but that's just the beginning. Under SB-2099, now pending before the Senate, any handguns you own would have to be registered with the IRS and you would have to pay a tax of $50 for each handgun you buy.
Although the bill doesn't spell this out, any unregistered or untaxed guns in your possession could probably be confiscated under the IRS code. According to the person who informed us of this bill: "SB-2099 is an amendment to the Internal Revenue Act of 1986. This means that the Finance Committee can pass this without the Senate voting on it at all."
