t
he concept of civil asset forfeiture, where law enforcement can confiscate peoples’ assets, isn’t new. It’s been around since the 1980s and was based on the drug war premise of taking the property of drug dealers to make the illegal trade unprofitable.
It didn’t work, as anyone remotely familiar with the current drug issues in this country can attest. Yet civil asset forfeiture is still around—and its abuse is a serious problem. After all, authorities don’t even need to suspect you of a crime in order to take your life savings.
Fox News reports on one disturbing recent example:
Linda Martin thought she was being responsible by putting her nest egg in a safe deposit box where she wouldn’t be tempted to touch it.
She never imagined the FBI would seize her life savings.
“They didn’t tell us why they took our money. They haven’t told us anything as far as what we did wrong,” Martin, 58, told Fox News. “We haven’t done anything wrong. We work and we saved our money because we were trying to save and buy a house.”
Two years later, Martin still doesn’t know why her money was taken or if she’ll ever get it back.
