The 1980's-era laws were designed to drain resources from powerful criminal organizations, but CAF has become a tool for law enforcement agencies across the U.S. to steal money and property from countless innocent people.
No criminal charge is required for this confiscation, resulting in easy inflows of cash for law enforcement departments and the proliferation of abuse. This phenomenon is known as "policing for profit."
In the last 25 years, the amount of "profit" stolen through CAF has skyrocketted.
According to the US Department of Justice, the value of asset forfeiture revoceries by US authorities from 1989-2010 was $12,667,612,066, increasing on average 19.5% per year.
In 2008, law enforcement took over $1.5 billion from the American public. While this number seems incredibly large, just a few years later, in 2014, that number tripled to nearly $4.5 billion.
When we examine these numbers, and their nearly exponential growth curve, it appears that police in America are getting really good at separating the citizen from their property — not just really good, criminally good.
To put this number into perspective, according to the FBI, victims of burglary offenses suffered an estimated $3.9 billion in property losses in 2014.
That means that law enforcement in America has stolen $600,000,000 more from Americans that actual criminal burglars.
When police surpass the criminal accomplishments of those they claim to protect you from, there is a serious problem.
The good news is that Americans are waking up to this Orwellian notion of police robbing the citizens, and they are taking a stand.
Even police officers are taking a stand against CAF. In an exclusive interview in September, the Free Thought Project talked officer Stephen Mills, chief of police at the Apache, Oklahoma police department. Mills became an outspoken advocate against CAF, after he became a victim of it.
The idea of thieving cops has also united organizations on opposite ends of the political spectrum. In October, the ACLU and the Koch Brothers came together to stop the inherent police theft in America.
While the police keep grabbing your property, it is important to remain vigilant. Only through a lesser ignorance and the spreading of information will we overcome this blatant tyranny. Please share this article with your friends and family to wake them up to the criminal reality that is - civil asset forfeiture.
Civil Asset Forfeiture (CAF) is one of several mechanisms specifically *designed* to create a police state in the United States of America. The most important of these mechanism in the issuance of military gear to civil police. Why? Who is doing this? Why don't politicians do anything to stop it?
Because in the last minutes, before everyone learns that the end is upon us, "they" need to maintain control as long as possible. Hours even minutes more of control in the end will make a huge difference in getting everyone (from all over the United States and the rest of the world) into DIA and safely into the tunnels beneath the Front Range. The roads simply must be kept open as long as possible.
Thus they are driving a wedge between the police and the people. The police are largely ignorant of this manipulation. They are not to blame any more than you and I are guilty of 9/11.
Do not expect this to change. It will not.