A North Carolina teenager was hoping to get her life back on track after a state judge ordered a man who sexually abused her to pay her $69,000. Instead, she got a nasty surprise.
The local police department had already seized the cash through civil asset forfeiture, and it was already gone. Despite a judge’s order, she will get nothing.
The case is a stunning example of the misplaced priorities and perverse incentives that asset forfeiture creates for police—and of how the federal government allows state and local police to evade reforms to stop forfeiture abuse.
The judge should make the dept pay her. How is this not the automatic result? I know, don’t explain it to me. I’m just mad.
Yeah, the money’s not gone. We know where it went, and there was no actual crime related to the money.
Civil forfeiture is state-sponsored theft.
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“Rights don’t exist if someone can take them away” - Carlin
Can’t most departments seize for feds and get a cut in return, state civil asset forfeiture is getting less common because it’s getting easier to fight because it’s more known and everyone thinks it’s idiotic.