Lawful demonstrators may be convicted simply because they did not think to leave an event where some demonstrators were committing illegal acts. Broad provisions of the 1996. Conviction of an activist or organization is NOT necessary for government to forfeit an owner's property. U.S. Government may civil forfeit a citizen's assets using only a Preponderance of Evidence by showing an owner's property was involved in a felony that would make it subject to forfeiture. The statue of limitations, the time period police have to civilly forfeit property, begin five years from the time police claim to have learned an asset was made subject to forfeiture.
Police can claim that anytime in the future.
Corporate security and private intelligence companies now work so closing with U.S. police agencies, they appear to merge. Neither charged defendants, nor anyone else, can use the Freedom of Information Act penetrate corporate information banks to learn if a corporation illegally obtained or provided information to a police agency. Increasingly, corporate informants work both sides of the street when they get paid for providing police the same information about, e.g., a political or environmental group. It is a dangerous trend in the United States when police agencies merge with corporate security forces, become perhaps an illegal enterprise, to violate a person's Constitutional and civil rights. All this secrecy can be invoked by U.S. Government to protect alleged national security, an ongoing investigation, undisclosed witnesses and jurors.