4 ms·

Civil asset forfeitures are like those towns in BFE that operate on ticket revenue - the situation rarely gets dealt with because the number of people getting t

• adventured 11y ago
  We're fortunate it has become, essentially, a national government scandal at this point, with perpetually wider awareness. The national media has taken to aggressively writing about it lately. In this case I'm confident we're going to see the forfeiture racket neutered in the next few years. It seems to have finally gotten large enough to draw serious Congressional and White House scrutiny to stop it.
  • tsotha 11y ago
    I hope you're right. I doubt it, but we'll see.
• jessaustin 11y ago
  That problem is not limited to BFE: egregious ticket and court revenue from those who can least afford it is the chronic offense of Ferguson MO and neighboring suburbs. The recent questionable police shooting was more of a trigger for the expression of preexisting dissatisfaction over the ticketing. It's not clear that the "proportion of the voting population" that faced this problem was "insignificant", but it's clear that race had something to do with it. (Aside: a close relative of mine got a traffic ticket in Ferguson once. Since he is a wealthy professional white dude, a single phone call to a secretary at the court was enough to get charges dropped.) Actually that's true of pretty much all unconscionable law enforcement practice in this country: it may not be race-based, but it is quite race-related.