4th amendment is a farce anyway. Asset forfeiture is a direct violation of the 4th and yet has passed judicial constitutionality tests. Asset forfeiture was never supposed to be used on US citizens since citizens can be prosecuted under federal criminal/civil laws. It was put in-place to seize the assets of non-US citizens who could not be persecuted under such laws, such as foreign ships/etc. Bennis v. Michigan was one of the worst SCOTUS decisions.
Of all the things wrong in the US, drugs, surveillance, healthcare, I don't think anything is worse than asset forfeiture.
Zero due process and assumption of innocence. Pretty core values being ignored. Not to mention the perverse incentives it gives law enforcement who often get to keep the money and spend it themselves. At the very least it should be put in a neutral state fund.
Just to be more precise, _civil_ asset forfeiture is the abomination.
Asset forfeiture is a general term which also covers seizure of assets produced by a crime after there has been a conviction. For example, seizing Bernie Madoff's remaining money after he got convicted of fraud.
It's a bit pedantic but I've seen a lot of people confuse numbers between the two. Obviously CAF is horrible, but I've seen a lot of numbers out of context about billions of dollars being seized which are blatantly false, because of this mixup.
Asset forfeiture is pretty fucked up. At least with eminent domain, there may sometimes be a good cause (building a rail/train/infrastructure that benefits all), but usually not (building an on-ramp for a shopping centre).
If the people who got away with the 2008 financial crisis were actually arrested, changed and convicted, it'd be interesting to see the government auction off the rewards of their crime (their mansions, expensive cars, etc.) As it stands now, ssset forfeiture seems to hurt the poorest and funnels money into the increasing militaristic police force.
I believe you are confusing eminent domain (forced sale of real estate) with asset forfeiture (cops pull you over, find something to arrest you for, then take all your stuff and never give it back to you regardless of whether you're found guilty or not).
