Pubdate: Sun, 01 May 2016
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2016 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Suzanne Wills

ABOLISH CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE

Re: =93Texas tops in use of civil asset forfeiture
=AD And it's likely to get worse, Audrey Redford says,=94 Monday
 Viewpoints.

Thanks to Redford for her excellent column and to
The News for continuing to call attention to the
most corrupting influence in law enforcement =AD civil asset forfeiture.

The injustice of police taking property without
due process has not gone unnoticed.

Right on Crime, a project of the Texas Public
Policy Foundation, the American Conservative
Union Foundation and the Prison Fellowship, has
given a series of seminars on the subject. It
says civil forfeiture endangers individual rights
and the integrity of law enforcement.

Sen. Rand Paul has introduced S. 255, the FAIR
(Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration) Act. The
act would require that the federal government
prove its case with clear and convincing evidence
before forfeiting seized property.

John Yoder and Brad Cates headed the Asset
Forfeiture Office at the Justice Department from
1983 to 1989. They now call civil forfeiture a
=93gross perversion of the status of government
amid a free citizenry,=94 and urge that it be abolished.

Doing so would take away police incentive to
pursue assets instead of protecting and serving
and do much to restore trust in law enforcement.

Suzanne Wills, Dallas
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom