Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, famous civil rights activist, wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Should the government be allowed to seize your property without due process of law? There are currently over 200 ways to have your property taken without a trial. The government, is killing people, just for owning land near government property. Because of the war on some drugs, the government is seizing money and property from people. Most of the time does not even press charges. It’s happening to people like you and me. Today you can get arrested or fined for moving frogs or eating on a subway. Are these injustices affecting you?
Ethel Hylton was at the Houston’s Hobby Airport when a police dog scratched her luggage. The police arrested her. They proceeded to search her luggage and her person. They couldn’t find any drugs, but they found $39,110. Despite the fact that they could not find any drugs the police kept the money. Where did that large sum of money come from? The money came from her life savings and life insurance settlement. How did she earn her life savings? She worked for 20 years as hotel housekeeper and hospital janitor. She got her money back, right? As of four years later, no she has not, despite the fact she can fully document where the money came from.
Don Scott was a retired rancher living in Malibu California. The government wanted to own his land because it was close to a national park. He refused to sell it. That did not stop the government, however. The LA county sheriffs, DEA agents, and other cops busted into his home one day. His wife screamed and Don came down with a gun to see what was the matter. That’s when he was told to drop the gun. He complied and then he was shot. Why did the police raid his home? The government said it was searching for marijuana. They never did find it. Michael Bradbury, the Ventura County DA, said of the raid, “(it was) motivated at least in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit the ranch for the government.” I bet Queen Jezebel is smiling to King Ahab somewhere in the great beyond.
John J. Zentner was a consultant to a building project in California. When he saw that some frogs would be harmed by the project he moved them to safety. The frogs were moved from the creek, where they were in danger, to a pond. What’s the problem with that you ask? The frogs were of the endangered species variety. Which makes it illegal to move the frogs even if you do not harm any in the process. The Department of Justice wanted him in jail for ten days! Luckily a judge had “mercy” on him and made him do 200 hours of community service, pay a $10,000 fine, and have his company pay a $65,000 fine.
Are these just a few isolated incidents of injustice? The National Libertarian party in a press release reported that in Washington DC police will stop black men in poor areas of the city. They then proceed to “routinely confiscate small amounts of cash and jewelry…Resident Ben Davis calls it ‘robbery with a badge.’” The International Society for Individual liberty reports “80% of seizure victims are never even charged with a crime. Law enforcement agencies often keep the best seized cars, watches, and TVs for their “department”, and sell the rest.” The ISIL also reports that the seizure industry has gone “from $27 million in 1986, to over $644 million in 1991 to over $2 billion today.” Edmund Burke, a famous British politician, once stated, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Are we letting evil triumph?