Two Alabama women spent more than a year trying to reclaim vehicles they owned, which the police had confiscated after arresting their drivers on drug charges.
  • satanmat@lemmy.world
    13·
    8 months ago

    See the problem is that these women were stupid enough to be poor… the smart rich people would have bought another car; and called the country prosecutor to get the cars returned. Silly people should have just eaten their cake.

    /s

  • Chestnut@lemmy.world
    121·
    8 months ago
    “Culley and Sutton’s argument for a separate preliminary hearing appears in many respects to be a backdoor argument for a more timely hearing so that a property owner with a good defense against forfeiture can recover her property more quickly,” he wrote. “But the court’s precedents already require a timely hearing.”
Alabama has since amended its forfeiture law to allow owners of seized property to request expedited hearings.
“Our decision today does not preclude those legislatively prescribed innovations,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote. “Rather, our decision simply addresses the base-line protection of the due process clause.”

    Seems like it’s less about civil forfeiture and more about how quickly can they get their property back when civil forfeiture happens

  • Hikermick@lemmy.world
    9·
    8 months ago

    Asset forfeiture was a big part of the War On Drugs. Here in Cleveland the cops confiscated a drug dealer’s hot rod car (Trans Am I think) and used it for a patrol car, painted just like the other cop cars. The Feds used to have to publish a list of all seizures, maybe still do. Once a week it was in USA Today and it was 4 pages long. IIRC Mid 90’s Congress passed a law hampering the ability to seize and the weekly lists were 2 pages long after that

  • Granbo's Holy Hotrod@lemmy.world
    1410·
    8 months ago

    I’m not sure how much it should matter, but neither of the cars were in use by the owner, and both were confiscated with drivers who had drugs on them. I’m not saying right or wrong, but cops didn’t just snag the cars and bounce. ACAB.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
      15·
      8 months ago

      I’m not sure how much it should matter

      I know exactly how much: not one whit. The cops stole legal property from people who themselves hadn’t broken the law.

      If someone committed perjury while astride my bicycle, I’d still ask for my bike back after cops finished questioning it.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
        9·
        8 months ago

        Even if they had been the ones to break the law, the police should not be able to take anything, let alone without any due process, in the first place unless it’s specifically to be temporarily held as evidence of a crime.