Jeff Sessions wants police to take more cash from American citizens
Source: The Washington Post
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday said he'd be issuing a new directive this week aimed at increasing police seizures of cash and property.
“We hope to issue this week a new directive on asset forfeiture — especially for drug traffickers,” Sessions said in his prepared remarks for a speech to the National District Attorney's Association in Minneapolis. "With care and professionalism, we plan to develop policies to increase forfeitures. No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime. Adoptive forfeitures are appropriate as is sharing with our partners."
Asset forfeiture is a disputed practice that allows law enforcement officials to permanently take money and goods from individuals suspected of crime. There is little disagreement among lawmakers, authorities and criminal justice reformers that “no criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime.” But in many cases, neither a criminal conviction nor even a criminal charge is necessary — under forfeiture laws in most states and at the federal level, mere suspicion of wrongdoing is enough to allow police to seize items permanently.
The practice is ripe for abuse. In one case in 2016, Oklahoma police seized $53,000 owned by a Christian band, an orphanage and a church after stopping a man on a highway for a broken taillight. A few years earlier, a Michigan drug task force raided the home of a self-described “soccer mom,” suspecting she was not in compliance with the state's medical marijuana law. They proceeded to take “every belonging” from the family, including tools, a bicycle and her daughter's birthday money
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/jeff-sessions-wants-police-to-take-more-cash-from-american-citizens/ar-BBECcJm?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp
Really.. just what this legalized theft from citizens really needed.. expansion. I'm sure this won't be abused, or targeted at the "undesirable" people out there.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Of course his privileged class will be protected.
It's going to be primarily targeted at minorities that have had the audacity to be successful. After all, how could they possibly be successful if they didn't break the law?
Never thought I'd say this in my lifetime, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if venues like this doesn't start to be used on political opponents. Probably ties into their quest to collect voter information.
