Jacob Sullum’s recent column called civil asset forfeiture exactly what it is: “a system of legalized larceny that allows law enforcement agencies to pad their budgets by confiscating allegedly crime-tainted property without charging, let alone convicting, the owner.”
The column focuses on federal issues, which could, in some ways, be alleviated by the FAIR Act. But the “Kafkaesque situation” created by civil forfeiture, as Sullum puts it, also causes severe harm in our own backyards.
