Property Seizures Sometimes Are Hasty

WASHINGTON -- In California, a wealthy rancher was shot to death by federal agents who burst into his home on suspicion that he was cultivating marijuana. It later turned out he strongly opposed illegal drugs.

A local district attorney concluded after an investigation that the government was more interested in seizing his valuable property under civil forfeiture laws than on making a drug arrest.

In Detroit, former New York Giants football player Kevin Belcher was detained by Drug Enforcement Administration agents because, as a black man who had bought a one-way ticket to El Paso, Texas, he fit the profile of a drug courier.

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