Stealing from the Citizenry: How Government Goons Use Civil Asset Forfeiture to Rob Us Blind

In jolly old England, Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. In modern-day America, greedy government goons steal from the innocent to give to the corrupt under court- and legislature-sanctioned schemes called civil asset forfeiture. In fact, one year, law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did.

Police agencies have used their ill-gotten gains to pay for illicit drugs, prostitutes, guns, armored cars, electronic surveillance gear, luxury vehicles, travel and a clown named Sparkles. This is how the American police state continues to get rich: by stealing from the citizenry. It's a new, twisted form of guilt by association. Only it's not the citizenry being accused of wrongdoing, just their money.

What this adds up to is a paradigm in which Americans no longer have to be guilty to be stripped of their property, rights and liberties. All you have to be is in possession of something the government wants. This is what has become known as "policing for profit."

We are now ruled by a government so consumed with squeezing every last penny out of the population as to be completely unconcerned if essential freedoms are trampled in the process. Our freedoms aren't just being trampled, however. They're being eviscerated. At every turn, "we the people" are getting swindled, cheated, conned, robbed, raided, pickpocketed, mugged, deceived, defrauded, double-crossed and fleeced by governmental and corporate shareholders of the American police state out to make a profit at taxpayer expense. Enough is enough.