Asset Forfeiture

What Gummint Does .. ... that NOBODY wants it to do.

This could be a long list indeed, but I'll show restraint.   From Bob Barr, who I think is a principled, stand-up guy, even if I don't always like what he says and does, I learned this. “ Census workers can enter your apartment in your absence What many Americans don’t realize, is that census workers — from the head of the Bureau and the Secretary of Commerce (its parent agency) down to the lowliest and newest Census employee — are empowered under federal law to actually demand access to any apartment or any other type of home or room that is rented out, in order to count persons in the abode and for “the collection of statistics.”  If the landlord of such apartment or other  leased premises refuses to grant the government worker access to your living quarters, whether you are present or not, the landlord can be fined $500.00. That’s right — not only can citizens be fined if they fail to answer the increasingly intrusive questions asked of them by the federal government under the guise of simply counting the number of people in the country; but a landlord must give them access to your apartment whether you’re there or not, in order to gather whatever “statistics” the law permits. In fact, some census workers apparently are going even further and demanding — and receiving — private cell phone numbers from landlords in order to call tenants and obtain information from them.  Isn’t it great to live in a “free” country? ” Hmmm.  I wonder if that's what's behind Census Takers Targeted in More than 100 Assaults in May?   Bad as that abuse is, it doesn't come close to  Asset Forfeiture: when it come to jack-boot government. The first I heard of asset forfeiture was on a 60-Minutes segment, maybe 20 years ago.  A guy was going to South America, and had no luggage. The feds questioned him before his flight, and discovered he had around $20,000 in cash on him.  They assumed he was going to buy drugs,  and confiscated his money.  Slam-bam, on the spot!  They confiscated the car he drove to the airport as well, if I remember correctly. It turned out he had a legitimate reason for flying to S.A. with that bundle, but too bad.  The courts upheld the seizure.  I long ago asked myself, was putting a few mafiosi in prison worth that loss of our freedom?  Yeah, Asset Forfeiture is the spawn of RICO, which has been the most abused, and politicized law on the books.  Reason has more on this.  It stinks, and needs dismantling.