Loading ...The Attorney General Just Ended The Law That Allows Police To Seize Your Assets Even If You’re Innocent
State and local police in the United States will no longer be able to use federal laws to justify seizing property without evidence of a crime, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Friday.
The practice of local police taking property, including cash and cars, from people that they stop, and of handing it over to federal authorities, became common during the country’s war on drugs in the 1980s.
Since then, the practice, commonly known “civil forfeiture,” has allowed the police to seize cash or property that they suspect is tied to a crime even if the owner isn’t charged with one. The Supreme Court has even upheld the practice a number of times.