The concept of civil asset forfeiture, where law enforcement can confiscate peoples’ assets, isn’t new. It’s been around since the 1980s and was based on the drug war premise of taking the property of drug dealers to make the illegal trade unprofitable.
It didn’t work, as anyone remotely familiar with the current drug issues in this country can attest. Yet civil asset forfeiture is still around—and its abuse is a serious problem. After all, authorities don’t even need to suspect you of a crime in order to take your life savings.
Fox News reports on one disturbing recent example:
Linda Martin thought she was being responsible by putting her nest egg in a safe deposit box where she wouldn’t be tempted to touch it.
She never imagined the FBI would seize her life savings.
“They didn’t tell us why they took our money. They haven’t told us anything as far as what we did wrong,” Martin, 58, told Fox News. “We haven’t done anything wrong. We work and we saved our money because we were trying to save and buy a house.”
Two years later, Martin still doesn’t know why her money was taken or if she’ll ever get it back.
“The FBI, they feel like they can get away with anything,” she said. “I just feel like it’s unfair.”
On March 22, 2021, the FBI seized Martin’s and 1,400 other customers’ safe deposit boxes from U.S. Private Vaults, a Beverly Hills–based company. The FBI took the $40,200 Linda was saving for a down payment on a home in addition to another $86 million in cash and tens of millions more in gold, silver, jewelry and other valuables from other safe deposit box renters.
The problem is that Martin isn’t accused of committing any crime. She doesn’t even appear to be suspected of a crime. She merely used a safe deposit box company that was also being used criminally. As such, her $40,000 is now in police hands................To Read More....
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