From: guido@island.COM (Guido Marx)
Subject: Re: Forfeiture laws
Organization: Island Graphics Corp.  San Rafael, Ca.
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 16:29:54 GMT

In article <h2hnp3.adamsr@netcom.com> adamsr@netcom.com (Rick Adams) writes:
>
>        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.

I find this rather amusing (as well as ominous).  I get these visions
of middle aged men in suits riding bicycles through seedy parts of
town.  This really just seems to increase the cost of prostitution,
since now you have to pay for a rental car too :^).  I can see it
now "Joe's Rent-a-heap - 'Hourly rates available'".  This does bring
up an interesting question, what do they do if the car is rented ?

Guido



>
>        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) 


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