From: adamsr@netcom.com (Rick Adams)
Subject: Forfeiture laws
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 20:26:22 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Followup-To: alt.activism.d


        Recently, the Vice Mayor of Phoenix, Arizona put forward a
suggestion that prostitution could be more effectively controlled by
seizing the automobiles owned by the prostitutes clients. The reasoning
was that it would both cost the individual financially, and force him to
admit his behavior to his family, rather than keep it secret. That it
would also generate additional revenue for the city was also not
overlooked.

        Apparently, such ordinances are in effect in other areas of the
United States and are proving successful.

        Isn't it marvelous the way our nation is attempting to solve 
its crime problems by stealing from the citizens? 
 
        First there were the RICO laws - created to battle organized 
crime but rapidly put to use to justify the seizure of property from 
such "organized crime" figures as teenage pot dealers.
 
        Next came the DEA and the WoD with the concept that it's 
easier to ignore the Constitution if you attack someone's property 
instead of the person themselves. Suddenly Law Enforcement agencies 
had a new source of income that was free of the tax rates and the 
politicians -seized property.  Never mind that it didn't ALWAYS come 
from guilty individuals. Never mind that there was often no 
justification for seizure (i.e., the possession of $1500 in cash 
does NOT mean that the possessor is a drug dealer) or that innocent 
people were being hurt. The WoD blurred the distinction between 
innocent people and criminals to the point that "fitting a profile" 
is now enough reason to assume a person is guilty - or at least to 
shift the burden of proof to one of innocence rather than one of 
guilt.
 
        Now the use of this delightfully profitable weapon may be 
expanded to attack those who patronize prostitutes.  First the 
justification was "organized crime."  Next it was "drug dealers." 
Now its "morals violations."  What's next, seizing the property of 
people who don't mow their lawns frequently enough, or who park 
illegally?
 
        Over the past 12 years, America has slowly evolved into a 
police state that is becoming increasingly harder to distinguish 
from that of the pre-Glosnast USSR every day.  As a child, I 
remember being told by my teachers and the media that I should be 
greatful to live in a country where the citizens were protected by 
their government, where children weren't made to inform on their 
parents, where the police didn't just seize your property or arrest 
you because of your appearance.  I remember those teachers and those 
TV announcers telling me how these were ALL things that the 
"commies" did to their citizens.
 
        Now I see people searched, their property seized, their 
lives disrupted, because they "fit a profile."  I see children 
praised for turning their parents in for occasionally smoking 
marijuana in the privacy of their homes. I see my government 
ignoring the Constitution, in favor of supporting a political 
campaign which is only resulting in increased violence and crime. 
And I see the Law Enforcement agencies, those "defenders of my 
freedom" I was taught to respect and admire as a child, not only 
condoning those acts, but profiting from them.
 
        I see all of this, I recall the warnings that we must work 
to "save our nation from the perils of communism" and I ask myself:  
 
        Who will work to save us from ourselves?


-- 
    rick.adams on GEnie   /|\        You are right from your side,        
     adamsr@netcom.com  /  |  \        And I am right from mine.          
    adamsr@irie.ais.org \ /|\ /  We're both just one too many mornings,   
   adamsr@norwich.bitnet  \|/  And a thousand miles behind. (c Bob Dylan) 
Newsgroups: alt.activism.d