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The government can legally take your stuff, even if you're innocent | Riley J. Dennis - YouTube
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Right now, itâs legal for the police to
take your money, your car, or even your house
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-- without ever arresting you or charging
you with a crime.
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This is called Civil Asset Forfeiture or sometimes
just Civil Forfeiture.
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This practice has existed in some form for
a long time, but itâs mainly become a huge
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problem since the âWar on Drugsâ started
in the 80s.
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Proponents of Civil Forfeiture usually say
that itâs used to seize the property of
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drug dealers -- but the problem is that in
practice itâs used to seize the property
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of pretty much anybody.
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Thatâs because police donât need any evidence
or proof that you committed a crime to take
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your property under Civil Forfeiture laws.
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Often times theyâll just cite their âsuspicionâ
that you did something illegal as a cause
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for taking your money or property.
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But just because youâre suspicious of someone,
doesnât mean theyâre guilty, and taking
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peopleâs property just because you think
they might have committed a crime is obviously
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a violation of their constitutional rights.
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I mean, the 4th amendment says you need a
warrant to seize someoneâs property, but
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civil forfeitures donât need a warrant,
and the 5th amendment says no person shall
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ever be deprived of their property without
due process, but civil forfeiture doesnât
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have any due process.
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Police can literally just take your stuff
for any reason they see fit.
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A lot of the time, theyâll just say that
they âsmelled weedâ even though they never
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found drugs on you.
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Itâs like all of our rights are thrown out
the window when it comes to drug enforcement.
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For a specific example, letâs talk about
Terry Dehko and his daughter.
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The Dehkos run a small grocery store in Michigan,
and in January 2013, they went to the bank
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to make a withdrawal, only to find out they
didnât have any money.
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The government had seized all of their $35,000 because they suspected the Dehkos of money laundering.
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They didnât notify the Dehkos or warn them
in any way.
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And months after it happened, the government
still didnât offer any evidence that they
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had actually committed money laundering.
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And the weird thing about civil forfeiture
is that the court case is against the property,
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not the person who owns the property.
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So the official court case was the United
States of America v. Thirty Five Thousand
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Six Hundred And Fifty-One Dollars And Eleven
Cents ($35,651.11) In U.S. Currency From PNC
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Bank Account Number XXXXXX6937.
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Like thatâs the real name of the court case.
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The United States against money.
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But by September the government still hadnât
held any sort of hearing for the Dehkos, so
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they filed a lawsuit with the help of the
Institute for Justice.
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They finally got a hearing set for December,
almost a year after their money had been taken,
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but then the government returned all their
money in November because they couldnât
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come up with any real evidence.
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Even though the Dehkos got their money back,
they still had to live for almost a year without
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it, and they only got it back because they
filed a lawsuit.
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Thatâs not okay, and itâs not a thing
that we should allow to keep happening.
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The government shouldnât just be able to take our stuff with no evidence that we committed a crime.
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There are so many individual cases of civil
forfeiture being used in really messed up
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ways that we could talk about, but this video
would get way too long.
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You can go to endforfeiture.com, which is
a website run by the Institute for Justice,
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to see more individual stories and get information
about civil forfeiture.
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The reason this is so relevant today, though, is because our current administration loves civil forfeiture.
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Does that surprise anybody?
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Lots of states have passed laws limiting civil
forfeitures, but Jeff Sessions recently signed
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a directive that will make it easier for the
government to bypass those state laws by transferring
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civil forfeitures directly to the Federal
government.
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Itâs funny how Republicans really love States
rights, until those States decide that they
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donât like civil forfeiture.
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Then all of sudden, itâs okay to bypass
States rights.
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But whatâs weird about Jeff Sessionsâ
love for civil forfeitures, is that even though
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he was a Republican Senator for 20 years,
civil forfeitures arenât really popular
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with Republicans or Democrats.
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The Cato Institute, a right-wing think tank,
found that 86% of Democrats and 76% of Republicans
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oppose civil forfeitures.
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Theyâre not popular with anyone.
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So why do politicians keep supporting them?
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Basically, theyâre profitable.
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In 2014, the Federal government seized over
$5 billion from Americans.
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For context, Americans only lost $3.5 billion
to burglaries in the same year.
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So, the government took more money from Americans
than all of the robberies in the country combined.
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And in a lot of those cases, police and local
authorities directly profit from seizing money
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or property because they get to keep it.
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And for the ones who do turn it over to the
Federal Government, many of them get a large
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percentage of it back through a process called
Equitable Sharing.
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In 2015, the Equitable Sharing Program was
limited to some degree, but Jeff Sessionsâ
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directive is bringing it back at full power.
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And because the reporting and transparency
behind civil forfeitures is so bad, we donât
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even have accurate data for whatâs being
seized at the state and local levels, and
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we donât know how they use the money that
theyâre getting from civil forfeitures.
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So, what can you do to help stop civil forfeitures?
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Tell your congress people that thatâs what
you want.
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Call them and tell them that you want civil
forfeiture reform.
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Donât support politicians who are in favor
of civil forfeitures.
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And speak out against people like Jeff Sessions
who want to continue to steal property from
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Americans under the guise of a âWar on Drugsâ.
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And thatâs all I had for you today.
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Thanks so much for watching, and Iâll see
you next time.
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