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So hold on, you and a police office come to your house and find someone inside stealing your TV and some cash. Does the thief get to keep the TV until he is tri

So hold on, you and a police office come to your house and find someone inside stealing your TV and some cash. Does the thief get to keep the TV until he is tried? Can he keep and spend the cash since he's still technically innocent? That's the problem with just taking the extreme "nothing punitive until there's a guilty verdict" approach. The least bad answer is somewhere in between. Personally I think 2 years is too long to wait. But that doesn't mean the right amount of time is zero...

mannykannot 4y ago
Ah, so in your example, the least bad solution is that the thief should be allowed to keep the stolen TV and cash for a certain amount of time - but for how long? And how long should I be allowed to take your TV simply by alleging you stole it from me? Once again, your reply peters out in ellipsis just when it gets to the tricky part. This is moot, however, being caught in the act is not a valid analogy for the situation we are discussing here, or generally for civil forfeiture as it is practiced in many parts of the US today. You started this thread saying you were very confused about what's going on here, and introducing hypothetical scenarios that do not resemble it is not going to help.