Philadelphia DA Drops Case Against Parents Whose House Was Seized Over A $40 Drug Sale By Their Son
from the a-man's-home-is-his-presumably-guilty-castle dept
The belated public outing of abusive asset forfeiture laws and programs is finally having some effect. Last week, news arrived that the IRS was dismissing its case against a restaurant owner -- something that was triggered by three years of sub-$10,000 deposits rather than any evidence of criminal involvement or activity.This week, it's Philadelphia's district attorney dropping a couple of suddenly toxic cases.
The Philadelphia District Attorney has dropped its efforts to seize the houses of two area families after their cases drew national and critical attention to the city’s use of asset forfeiture to seize citizens’ property.As C.J. Ciaramella reports, the case against Christos Sourovelis's home (notably, not against the Sourovelises themselves) was particularly weak. The home was seized solely because of a $40 drug sale by their son.
The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, announced on Thursday morning that the Philadelphia D.A. was dropping its asset forfeiture cases against the homes of Christos Sourovelis and Doila Welch.
In Welch's case, her estranged husband was selling marijuana out of the house while she was mostly confined to a bed upstairs by her disability.
Philadelphia hauls in about $6 million a year from asset forfeiture, a program ostensibly aimed at curbing drug trafficking. Ciaramella points out that this total is greater than Brooklyn and Los Angeles combined. As is the case with any easily-abused program, it can quickly become too much of a "good" thing. What may have started as a way to cripple drug organizations has become a form of petty government theft.
A City Paper review of 100 cases from 2011 and 2012 found the median amount of cash seized by the District Attorney was only $178.Despite the dismissals of cases against Sourovelis's and Welch's homes (and I'm pointing this out again to highlight the ridiculousness of asset forfeitrue), the district attorney is still claiming both a victory and prime, beachfront real estate on the Moral High Ground.
"The class-action lawyers are trying to portray today's events as some sort of victory. The truth is that we resolve most of our real estate forfeiture actions by agreement, just as we are doing here, and we have been doing that since long before this lawsuit was filed.Sure. And it has nothing to do with the rising public outcry over these easily-abused programs. Or the continuing class-action lawsuit against the city over asset forfeiture. The fact that the DA just gave up two homes the city could have easily kept is actually the admission of a small defeat. The ease with which the city can seize and liquidate assets is truly amazing, especially considering how hard those whose assets have been seized have to fight to regain control of their property.
"We do it because the purpose of the forfeiture process is to protect public safety and relieve neighborhoods of rampant drug dealing."
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Filed Under: asset seizure, forfeiture, philadelphia, police, seizure
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Nope.
Sorry, but no dice. "Drug lords" are few, dangerous, well-connected and wealthy. More likely than not, they are already donating to the police retirement funds as well as giving generously directly to several officers and police departments.
It's much less risky to seize the property of ordinary citizens. They are much less likely to retaliate both judicially, with hit jobs, and by withdrawing perks and are more in the ballpark of what police forces may hope to tackle.
For that reason, civil asset forfeiture is an entirely useless concept. It can at best be used for skimming small fry, encouraging police officers to not actually go after drug dealers but instead take an occasional share in their profits.
But you don't mess with the big guys except in criminal proceedings since the only way you'll be safe from revenge is if they are locked up and out of grace with their connections.
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Re: Nope.
There would be problems with that, of course, but it seems like a reasonable variant of the basic counterbalancing policy for a conflict-of-interest scenario...
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Re: Re: Nope.
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You are no way cynical enough. Not an insult; just an observation.
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Achievement Unlocked. *Detective Badge Achieved*
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We have a "horrible" problem, we give them a solution (without boundaries, because we trust them), they get bored of how the new toy is supposed to work and push the limits, when they discover there are no limits they keep going.
Drug War - Lets sue the money! - Oh hey we can get that dudes Mercedes because of a crack rock - Look we fixed our budget issue.
Now this isn't what was intended, kid sells $40 of pot and forfeits the family home... but without any limits this is where we are.
And the rules pretty much do not matter, IIRC eastern coast US PD actually has a line item in the budget about how much they need to seize to keep the PD going... despite the whole do not use it that way rules.
Society had a problem, a solution was given to calm the hysteria and call the problem solved... and made a much worse problem in its wake. Sound familiar?
Perhaps if we stop looking for the magical one size fits all fix, and do that hard work that doesn't make for the better soundbite, we might get better solutions... because it takes time to fix things. This isn't a sitcom where it all gives solved in 30 minutes, and we really need a better attention span to make sure the fix isn't worse than the problem in the end. Or do we want to claim TSA, Patriot Act, "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", lets hand military surplus (read as DoD budget pork no one else wanted) to local law enforcement, and a whole host of other chickens that have come home to roost good ideas.
Society is hard work, perhaps it is time we stop letting it be driven by the whims of those who can scream the loudest but can't think 2 steps ahead.
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Re:
Perhaps this should serve as an example of why we should follow the damned Constitution? You know... the part where the Bill o Right says... They cannot seize anything without a warrant, and the part where people have a right to a trial.
And considering the nature of a building that pretty much never moves without a great deal of effort, seizing such things as though it were a wrist watch is pretty blatant abuse.
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Re: Re:
Property has no right to a trial, and a good citizen can totally access the legal system to get back the property without any fuss... (falls over laughing).
Again it is the result of bad laws passed to get the "bad guy" that people supported until it happened to catch them too, then suddenly they can see how wrong it is.
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There oughta be a law
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Re: There oughta be a law
Did they okay someone losing their house? Then they just lost theirs. A car? Then they just lost theirs. Make the punishment match the crime.
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defense
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Re: defense
It's brilliant. How can the defendant make a case if they don't fit in the courthouse?
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Typos in article
==>
"(and I'm pointing this out again to highlight the ridiculousness of asset forfeiture)"
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Re:
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Shame
I understand if a house is being used for continuous selling of drugs and massive amounts of drugs are found there, but even then it should be a process that goes through court and not a judgement made by some corrupt cop department that would get a cut of the theft.
This is plain simple theft by the Police and hopefully the FBI will investigate and charge DA's who have been abusing the system and probably selling the homes to cops for next to nothing.
Sadly public servants have been getting away with theft and murder for far too long and amazingly this is in America, where people actually support these communist type actions.
The fat that thy tried to seize a home because of a $40 DRUG CASE BY THE SON IS ENOUGH TO SHOW HOW CORRUPT THE SYSTEM IS AND I HOPE CONGRESS DOES SOMETHING TO PUNISH THESE POLICE FORCES, MAYBE BY REMOVING ALL FORFEITURE LAWS COMPLETELY.
Again sadly in America corruption is legal and this just proves that once more, and Americans will still proudly claim that they are the best country in the world while they are being stolen from legally by corrupt cops.
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Re: Shame
But you will not find enough fellow Americans to help you dismantle this piece of trash because these laws are entrenched on both sides of the isle.
I sadly am afraid that none of this will change until the lead flies.
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Re: Shame
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Re: Re: Shame
Not while money is free speech.
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Re: Re: Shame
You are not the one buying your politicians. It may be mostly your money, but you are not controlling it.
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Re: Re: Shame
Corruption has never been illegal (only very specific, narrow forms of corruption have been criminalized). Look at our system right now: hopelessly corrupt, but the vast majority of that corruption is entirely legal. Such is as it has always been.
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Philadelphia, we have a problem
At the rate a city attorney is paid I would imagine that the COST of seizing that $178 actually EXCEEDED the amount seized!
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i dont know about anyone else, but i dont call the seizing of someones property 'a form of petty government theft'! people had to work their ass off in 99% of cases trying to pay the exorbitant mortgages and other bills every month! to have someone come along and put a claim in to take that property away, especially under the ridiculous circumstances stated is completely taking the piss!!
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I wouldn't call stealing a house, which for even a modest one can easily be valued at well over a hundred thousand dollars, "petty theft."
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Don't get me wrong, they often do end up serving a jail sentence, but at the end of it they go back to their ill gotten gains.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/courts-must-do-more-to-recover-criminal-gains-ur ges-labour-9704923.html
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For all the money
Why not sell it to the states where its legal..MAKE A PROFIT..
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Liar, liar, pants on fire. I'll also add armed robbery, and chutzpah. I'm not Jewish, but it fits. I hope we're beginning to force these bottom feeders back into the mud, but I'm resigned to the fact it may take some time. Good to see good people win one.
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Philidelphia asset forfeiture
theft and those who instigate it are nothing more then thieves despite the claim that they are doing it for the
public good. When the harm inflicted on the public exceeds
the so called good it is supposed to effect it is bad law
and should be abolished.
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