A few years ago the combined governments of America surpassed all other thieves and robbers in terms of the value of items and cash stolen from people annually. I read that somewhere and believed it without citation. And this has nothing to do with the theft and slavery of taxation, regulation, and inflation. Factor those in and gubmint gives Satan a run for your money.

No, this particular stealing is known as “civil forfeiture” though there’s nothing civil about it. Under Imperial law and the statutes of the several States the police can just seize your money or other stuff and haul it away. If you don’t successfully complete a Draconian legal procedure – literally pushing a boulder uphill, with a string, on ice, under gunfire, etc. – they get to keep it. This keeps us safe from terrorists, monsters, dope dealers, and unicorns.

I dealt with a few of these types of cases back in the dark days. I actually won a few. Believe it or not, the Feds can be easier to work with that local enforcers of the Big Club’s decrees of “justice.” Most people don’t win. Most don’t even try to recover their lost goods. The odds are not in their favor.

In these bizarre appropriations no arrest is necessary. In fact, the police don’t even have to accuse one of a crime or even (officially) suspect one. They literally just take things and keep them. Because. This usually involves cash money but can include: houses, cars, boats, planes, furniture, clothes, jewelry, guns, debit cards, and just about any other physical items.

Should one get indignant and demand the return of said items, one has to file a pleading in the eventual civil action – brought by the government against the things seized. They actually style the cases like this: The Empire v. $3,472 in Federal Reserve Funny Money, CV-BS-666. Really. Most folks just let it go. A judge rubber stamps the theft at a civil calendar call and that’s that. And it can be better to let it go.

The procedure for recovery places one in the near-impossible position of proving a negative – say, proving that the cash was not used in or gained through a drug deal. And they look to trip people into committing perjury or admissions of “real” crimes.

Sometimes a few folks win their own stuff back. Sometimes it’s as easy as writing a letter. Some small children in Georgia did just that: they got their piggy bank back from the man:

Kenneth Woods Jr. and his little sister saved all their money in their piggy banks, the same ones narcotics agents emptied during the execution of a search warrant last fall.

“I’m asking can we have our money we save(d) up back. We didn’t do anything wrong,” the then 10-year-old wrote in answer to a civil forfeiture action filed in Richmond County Superior Court.

A hearing scheduled Thursday ended before it could begin. When Assistant District Attorney Mark Shaefer read the boy’s reply, he agreed immediately to give the $420 back, said attorney Jason Hasty who volunteered to help the children and their grandmother, Corene Woods, after she told him about the piggy banks.

Grandmother wasn’t so lucky, losing her vehicles. At least she wasn’t SWATTED over the Devil’s Lettuce, scourge of civilization. And let’s give ADA Shaefer the Civil Servant of the Day Award! Thank you, sir, for having a conscience. That, and common sense and human decency, seems lacking elsewhere.

Yes, this is the law of the land. The government, gaining Billion$ in free loot, loves it. The Alabama Elf, for instance, is all over the concept, looking to expand it far and wide. He’s not alone. This is one of those things you’d know about, care about, maybe even get angry about, if you’d turn off the G-D television and wake up for once.

There are a few comments after the linked story, all sympathetic. Maybe it’s the child victim thing that got them. At least they’re aware now. They use words like “due process,” “leeches,” and “just wrong.” When leeches run the system, due process is just wrong.

‘Merica.

Ill gotten.