Fellow Conservative,
Most Americans have grown up believing that the Constitution ensures that all Americans are innocent until proven guilty. I’m here to tell you that concept is dead.
Under a policy known as “civil asset forfeiture,” Federal, State, and Local governments have been seizing property and assets without ever even charging citizens with a crime.
Under civil forfeiture laws, police and federal agents can seize property and assets without ever charging or convicting people of a crime. All it takes is for government to claim that the property “facilitates crime” and they can seize whatever they want without any trial!
Police and government agencies have the ability to seize your home, property, and assets without ever charging or convicting you of a crime. What’s even worse is that this is completely legal.
Now there are allegations that the Internal Revenue Service, already plagued by scandal, has increased seizing bank accounts without so much as accusing individuals of a crime!
Carole Hinders has owned and operated a cash-only Mexican restaurant for almost 40-years. Then one day, tax agents showed up at her door and notified her that the IRS was seizing her bank account because – and this is the ridiculous part – her deposits were smaller than $10k.
Most people have no choice but to give up. With their property and bank accounts seized, many don’t have the resources to fight the seizures.
This is unfair, unjust, un-American, and it MUST be stopped!
As much as I would love to blame the IRS for all of this, the tax agency is just one of many government bodies that abuse the law to steal from innocent citizens to pad their bank accounts.
Chris Sourouvelis knows all too well how destructive these laws can be. In March of 2014, Chris’s 22-year old son was caught selling $40 worth of drugs outside his parents’ home. Yes, this was illegal. But the young man had no previous arrests or a prior record of any kind. So, the Judge ordered Chris to attend rehab.
That should have been the end of it. So, you can imagine the family’s surprise when police showed up without notice, evicted them, and seized the home under “civil forfeiture” laws.
The Sourouvelis family has been trying to regain control over their property. They fought for months to take back their home, fighting an uphill battle all the way.
But the City of Philadelphia has gotten exceptionally good at seizing property without even charging people with crimes! In the last 10 years, the City of Philadelphia has seized 1,000 homes, around 3,290 privately owned vehicles, and a whopping $44 MILLION in cash.
The American people shouldn’t have to fight tooth and nail to recover their property when they haven’t even been convicted of a crime, let alone charged with one!
And these municipalities get away with this all the time. One of the most frequent questions asked during traffic stops has become “are you traveling with large amounts of cash?”
Officers ask this question because if you are in fact traveling with an “excessive” amount of hard currency, they can permanently seize it under the suspicion that it is for illicit purposes!
Believe it or not, this happens all the time and police departments are allowed to spend these seized funds on practically anything they want and are allowed to keep 100% of the money seized!
This is wrong, this is tyrannical, and it must be stopped!
I understand that this is can be a vital tool to fight organized crime, but like every other governmental “good idea,” civil forfeiture laws are being used against innocent people!
Since 2001, under just ONE civil forfeiture program, police have seized $2.5 BILLION from 61,998 cash seizures, all from people who were never even charged with a crime.
Let that number sink in for a second. Now imagine that YOU were being targeted by the IRS or some overzealous police officer. At that point, it would be too late.
This abuse of power and government overreach is completely unacceptable. The law is rigged to make it impossible to fight back against some of the most powerful agencies that exist within the federal government.
You must take a stand against this tyranny now! You must raise your voice and demand that these civil forfeiture laws, at all levels, be reformed to protect innocent Americans from overzealous government agents!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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