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 - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom