US Suspends Controversial Asset-Forfeiture Program Targeting Airline Travelers

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: US News and World Report/Reuters

Nov. 21, 2024, at 10:19 a.m.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. deputy attorney general has suspended a controversial civil asset-forfeiture program by the Drug Enforcement Administration that targeted unsuspecting airline passengers and subjected them to potentially unlawful seizures of cash from their bags. The Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, announced the suspension of the DEA's program by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a new report released on Thursday that raised grave concerns about the program and questioned whether some of the searches were conducted legally.

"The DEA was not complying with its own policy on consensual encounters conducted at mass transportation facilities, resulting in personnel creating potentially significant operational and legal risks," Horowitz wrote in a memo to Monaco and Anne Milgram, the DEA administrator.

Civil asset forfeiture has long been a controversial program that critics argue infringes on people's constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure. It allows police to search and seize property from people who may be suspected of a crime, even if they are never charged.

The proceeds from the seizure are typically split among the law enforcement agencies involved in the search, creating what some argue is a perverse financial incentive for federal, state and local police departments. The property owner can recover the assets only if he or she can prove the seizure was not connected to any criminal activity, creating a legal burden that is costly and time-consuming.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-11-21/us-suspends-controversial-asset-forfeiture-program-targeting-airline-travelers

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Link to DOJ OIG PRESS RELEASE - DOJ OIG Releases Management Alert Identifying Concerns with the DEA’s Transportation Interdiction Activities

[OldBaldy1701E]

1. All. By. Design.

The proceeds from the seizure are typically split among the law enforcement agencies involved in the search, creating what some argue is a perverse financial incentive for federal, state and local police departments. The property owner can recover the assets only if he or she can prove the seizure was not connected to any criminal activity, creating a legal burden that is costly and time-consuming.

So much for being 'innocent until proven guilty'.

[GiqueCee]

2. Civil Asset Forfeiture...

Last edited Thu Nov 21, 2024, 05:31 PM - Edit history (1)

... is a vile obscenity that should NEVER have been enacted into law. It is a blatant violation of civil liberties enshrined in the 4th Amendment:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things ..."

In a civilized society one's assets cannot be confiscated until, and unless, one has been charged and subsequently convicted of a crime. Police departments across the country are enriching themselves through literal highway robbery. And they never return confiscated assets unless forced to by the courts, and even then, corrupt police unions fight tooth and nail to retain the stolen assets, or the revenue obtained though their sale, EVEN IF THE VICTIM IS NEVER CHARGED WITH, OR CONVICTED OF A CRIME!
Too many have been forced to give up their fight for the return of that which should never have been stolen in the first place, because of the prohibitive cost of litigation, and some have lost everything because of a grotesquely corrupt legal system that protects LEOs no matter how egregious their crimes may be.

For the record: My younger son is a LEO, and this is one of the few things on which we agree.

[LittleGirl]

4. Preach! It's unconstitutional! nt

[iluvtennis]

5. Agree - this should have never been allowed. n/t

[canuckledragger]

3. Good.

civil asset-forfeiture in any form is just legalized theft done by theives with a badge and gun.

[EarnestPutz]

6. So help me out here. Who gets the blame here for creating this unlawful program in the first.....

.......place and who now deserves the credit for suspending it ? I’m serious, this has been around for a long time and has been recognized as the real affront on people’s rights that it has been. Was it us or them, or both that gave the DEA this power in the first place?

[BumRushDaShow]

7. If you don't count the "Prohee" days of Prohibition

it took off in its modern form as a Raygun "War on Drugs" thing.

[EarnestPutz]

9. There you go, that's it. "War on Drugs" went through my mind, but hanging it on Ronnie did not. Thanks.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. "War on Drugs" went through my mind too and I knew that was under Raygun

along with Nancy's "Just Say No"... But I went on and did a quick search and confirmed it!!

[mpcamb]

8. About 10 years ago I read an article about this. I don't know how to make it available,

but here it is- It's really horrifying:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/12/taken