Civil Asset Forfeiture in Texas Is Creating An Unlikely Alliance (HBO) 

Watch Next: How Police Departments Use Civil Forfeiture to Collect Billions - bit.ly/2tW6aGY

Not much difference between that sheriff and the cartel as far as I can see.

How ironic that those who we entrust to fight against theft are the same people who are perpetrating it.

This cop is a lyer. He know that their taking innocent people's property

Sheriff:”So many positive things we can do with that money, like using it to keep beating the shit out of normal citizens and stuffing our faces with prime donuts

Smoking weed?! You criminal! *steals her car*

Asset forfeiture: AKA legalized theft

The fact that law enforcement can seize your property legally without even charging you with a crime is probably one of the most f*cked up, corrupt and disgusting things I've ever heard of.

"We are seizing property of drug cartels!" So they seize a woman's truck who had an ounce of pot. WOW! Really logical.

Even when done for what may seem like a good reason , the ability of government to seize property without due process is the beginning of tyranny .

How to fix this, ITS CALLED DUE PROCESS. Problem is in America we have a corrupt justice system. Due process is a joke when you are convicted before you step foot in a court room.

Crime doesn't pay unless your a cop / criminal.

It is disgusting how the police chief justifies stealing people's belongings.. someone who is caught for simple possession is clearly not a cartel member.. I can't believe this type of crap actually happens and they are able to get away with it

I was in the market for a used car. I've found that my negotiation position with a seller improves dramatically when I count out the cash in front of him. Carrying $10,000.00 in cash would not be an unusual thing to do in a situation like that. However....I stopped doing it...not because I was afraid I would be robbed by a bad guy but because I was afraid a cop would do it. Nice, huh?

Innocent until proven guilty. When did we give up this right

The question should b how much of that 53 million come from the cartel mules or how much was taken from law abiding citizens

Can't say I agree with them doing it to someone who is obviously not part of the Cartel. There should be a conviction first. Making sure that a law that is hundreds of years old stays so you can basically plunder someones property. Pathetic.

Civil asset forfeiture can destroy lives, bankrupt families, make people homeless, and loose their jobs. That's like taxation without representation which is one reason the war for independence was fought.

A person should be convicted before assets can be seized permanently. This practice is wrong.

it's also being abused by law" enforcement" to bolster their incomes. Due process should only be the way that forfeiture. Thus hence the term "highway robbery"

As someone wiser than I once said, the more cash involved, the more logic goes out the window.

The reason they don't want to talk to her is because they auctioned her Jeep off!

This is just a drop in the ocean regarding this and our bought and paid for congress makes great lip service about how outrageous it's getting and yet does nothing about it. We are having expensive homes taken when a child of the owners gets arrested with $40 worth of heroin. Company owned vehicles seized when employees get caught breaking the law in them. Commercial properties stolen when renters in that property commit some sort of crime and the owners of the buildings had nothing at all to do with the business that rented from them. Cash taken from drivers on highways without any charges or even tickets written. Citizens extorted by threats of severe retaliation if they dare fight back or offered half back if they become too loud. I mean would this really even be an issue in a true Constitutional Republic where the rights of the individuals are to be protected above all else BY our government agencies? Maybe this is the giant alarm bells ringing for the time to wake up and take notice of what the hell is really going on in this totalitarian fascist police state.

There's this bank called Wells Fargo. It was started by a guy named John Wells. Mr. Wells didn't start out to build a bank, he started by running a stagecoach company called John Wells & Co. Stagecoach Company (real original, huh?). Mr. Wells and his stagecoach company was the only stagecoach at the time that would cross the Mississippi River and go all the way to gold country in California if you hired him to do so. So his company was the only one to go far. Well guess what? His customers nicknamed his stagecoach company "The Far-go"! When bandits and bank robbers would see his stagecoach come through, sometimes they were tempted to rob it. After all, eventually it got to the point where it kept a pretty regular schedule. So when they did rob it, they sometimes left the passengers and driver standing by the side of the road with nothing but the clothes on their backs even though they might have started the trip with enough money to make a new life at their destination. John Wells got tired of his people and his customers getting robbed by bandits along the highway, so he started hiring men who knew how to handle a shotgun to fight off the bandits. That's where the term "riding shotgun" comes from; the guy up front beside the driver who shot at the robbers literally carried a shotgun. The reason I just went through this long-winded explanation is because these days the police have become the highway robbers who are stealing from honest hard-working people, and it will someday become a civilian's duty to "ride shotgun" to protect the public from those highway robbers - badges or not - and mark my words, the police (or their widows and widowers) will come to regret stealing from hard-working people who have done nothing wrong. It might not happen in my lifetime, but mark my words, it WILL happen. And with all the electronics so many people carry and know how to use that record live video, eventually the support of the public will turn against the police officers who leave honest, hard-working people standing by the side of the road with nothing but the clothes on their backs. If you think James O'Keefe's Project Veritas is interesting, wait until somebody figures out how to live stream a civil asset seizure without the police knowing they're on camera....

Hearing her makes my soul hurt.... And the sad part is we know she will never see that Jeep again.

I live in Texas and this has happened to me and two other people I know. (And no, none of us are cartel...)

Civil asset forfeiture is pathetic and un-American. I would vote not-guilty in any case where a LEO died trying to seize someone's property in such a manner.

“Suspected” isn’t nearly enough.

*When the protectors become the predators...* #LivingBehindEnemyLines

seizing citizens private property is fighting drug cartels in mexico?

this is a very abused system

Keep taxes low by confiscating property from citizens. @5:40

I would like to see a breakdown of all of the seizures and who it was seized from to see what percentage of property seized was from cartels. I bet it’s a low percentage.

"It's a big club and you ain't in the big club"...George Carlin.

Doesn't the police department eventually get to auction off assets that go uncollected? Criminals busting "criminals" under the guise of fighting the cartel. Want to really fight the cartel? Legalize everything and treat drugs as a public health issue, not criminal. Ohh but the DEA doesn't want that, their jobs are more important!

The fact there is even any DEBATE about this subject shouts volumes !! EVERYONE should already know this is wrong

I'm going through similar. But no drugs they arrested me & towed my vehicle for registration not being in my name. I'm still attempting to get it back.

Guilty until proven innocent

Anyone taking something from someone else without a judge's order is an armed thief and should be treated as such, badge or not.

A few years back they were called Highway Men

much love to the Sister that lost the jeep

Never trust a cop, they are not your friend.

Whats the percentage that asset forfeiture are coming from the Cartel and from US citizens? Is this law hurting more or less US citizens than its helping?

I was appalled by the sheriff's argument about civil asset forfeiture being the only effective tool they have against the cartels. After all, summary executions would be even more effective, but that would not make them right. Having _no_ effective tools on the enforcement side would actually be a benefit in the big picture; moving away from approaches that don't work is how we get to approaches that do work. As it is, the ineffective efforts at enforcement admittedly allow the cartels to go about their business with only a slight adjustment. However, law enforcement is very good at devastating lives of citizens who may or may not be guilty of an associated offense.

I am a legal business owner. The Duncanville police department took all of my CBD products claiming they were marijuana. They filed civil asset forfeiture case against me. The case was dismissed and yet the police department still refuses to return the $11,841.00 they took from me. No legal charges have been filed against me. No testing has been done in the products to prove what they are. Civil asset forfeiture case law needs to be reformed. Average citizens are being hurt by the broad laws. Conviction should be required to keep property. Civil asset forfeiture cases are the only time you are not innocent until proven guilty. It assumes you are guilty, doesn’t require any conviction to punish you.

WHAT IS THE POINT OF WORKING HARD AND CONTRIBUTING TO SOCIETY IF THE CORRUPT GOVERNMENT IS JUST GOING TO TAKE IT AWAY AT RANDOM

Classic police state.

Someone should tell that sheriff the Cretaceous called and they want their dinosaur back.

The Sheriff has some nerve, at the 6:07 mark he goes in on people who complain and site things that they have heard about asset forfeiture without showing any proof, yet at the beginning the sheriff wouldn't name the senator who was in opposition to asset forfeiture when President Trump asked. If that isn't hypocritical I don't know what is...."Double Speak is the language that law enforcement uses. Especially operating under color of law & not abiding by their oaths to the Constitution. The lack of due process violates the constitution. Enforce it. Hold these local, state and federal authorities accountable for their actions. Learn your state's organic constitution & enforce it....

So much for the presumption of innocence

Legal Theft

And they wonder why we call them " pigs "

taxation without representation

Property is liberty. America's gone down the wrong path from the revolution, and that's coming from a Brit.

This state needs to be investigated at every level and sued by the citizens.

The "war on drugs", ruining one life at a time.

Yeah it’s a benefit to the officers, they keep the damn cash and sell off the cars and possessions for cash.

Why not the death penalty before conviction?

If something like this happened to me i would become a thief, and i would target all law enforcement officers.

Civil Asset forfeiture without conviction is nothing but theft. And it is unconstitutional. Your property cannot be seized without due process of law. Period.

If someone stole my life savings and I had nothing left I'm showing up on that cop's front door and changing both our lives.

Thank you State Sen Konni Burton. Writing your name is one of the few times I have no urge to throw up, when referring to an elected official. Keep up the good fight.

The money they got from this poor girls car probably only covered a week or 2 pay of her arresting officer

Love how the Sheriff can just stay clueless because he's adding to his department's bottom line.

This cop is nothing more than a criminal himself. Fighting for the "authority" to take innocent people's property. Cop logic 101: Why should we have to prove someone committed a crime? Shouldn't our "word" be enough?

I wonder how proponents of Civil Asset Forfeiture would react if it was used on law abiding gun owners?

How is this not a violation of the 14th amendment?

I don’t see where anything they seized was from a cartel

We have a similar thing in the UK called The Proceeds of Crimes Act. But, there must be a conviction before assets are seized and sold.

"Weakening the cartel." LOL

"you make it, we take it" - DEA

This is a simple end run around due process It also gives the state the opportunity to completely strip a person of the right to even defend yourself in court

"Law enforcement uses the law to fight cartels" then uses the law against the public and not the cartels. Count on the cops to lie every chance they get..

this is an issue where everyone should agree if there is no crime than your stuff should be left alone.

A gofundme should be started for her to get some new wheels. I would come out of pocket.

Note that Civil Asset Forfeiture does not require that the assets taken are from people who are charged with a crime, much less convicted. It does not even require probable cause. For example, if you have $10,000 cash and are going to the next town to buy a car, if you are stopped by the police, they can say that they suspect that money is involved with drugs. They can take that money from you at the side of the road without due process. To get that money back, you have to hire a lawyer and go into a courtroom that benefits from the money taken from you and you have to prove that money was not to be used for drugs. You will probably not get your money back, but you still have to pay your lawyer. The problem is that the police officers and courts that take your money use it as a revenue stream. It's very much a tax at gunpoint. The way it should work, is that the onus needs to be on the police and the courts to prove that the money was intended for illegal purposes. The best way to do that is through a conviction. For international drug lords, convictions are often obtained "in absencia" if they cannot be brought into court. Those kind of trials happen all the time. Otherwise, the money should be returned to the owner.

3:15 It's just a benefit for the officers, the department, and the citizens. Well . . . we see where we the citizens stand in the pecking order. The taking of ANY property from ANY citizen without due process runs a bulldozer over the rights of ALL citizens. Better a 100 criminals go free than one innocent convicted.

She's one of the few tea party politicians who doesn't seem batshit crazy. Fair play to her.

That law is messed up .If convicted of certain felonies I could see that but not just because of arrest . That means they could arrest anyone and take their property .

Policing for profit is the major factor undermining the publics confidence in law enforcement.

There are alot of questions this reporter could have asked that sheriff but he really blew it. Also the reason that girl can't find out anything about her Jeep is because after a month or so that thing has already been auctioned off and the cops kept the cash.

Flashing your lights is legal First Amendment speech, according to the Supreme Court.

Not getting any of my property without a gun fight.

😂😂😂 Brilliant! Brilliant! I love Americans' sense of humor. This isn't found anywhere else in the world. Never ever have I seen such a genre of ' humor'. Kind of understatement of daily life in the US. And the crazy and bizarre, if not surreal, things 'government' can do. I thought Mr Bean is funny. But this is hilarious. Your scriptwriter is absolutely a creative genius. Is this a SNL type of programme? Strange humor but I suppose people and countries have different kinds of humor. Will definitely get used to it. Must say it is very funny. It is an original kind of humor that I've never seen before. Not the slapstick kind of humor associated with the US. The actors are very convincing. Very very good acting. No overacting. Dark humor? Thanks!

Citizens need to start pressing charges of constitutional right violations, perjury,crimes under title 18 u.s.c. sections 241 and 242,grand larceny, criminal theft,grand theft auto.

May I suggest a follow-up report in light of the recent Supreme court decision, Timbs v. Indiana?

This only becomes a real problem when people who aren't using or dealing drugs start getting their cars taken away.

At one time, asset forfeiture was only done by the IRS for unpaid taxes. Giving the local police this power was a huge obvious mistake.

The cartel is fighting itself and we are all in the crosshairs.

Actually just a couple of weeks ago this was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

if i was her. Texas would be history for me.

I presume his salary and retirement would be greatly reduced if he could no longer steel from his citizens.

This reminds me of the old Robin Hood tales with the sheriff's men seizing (stealing) anything not nailed down and most of those things if they could pry them free. I foresee many modern day Robin Hoods coming about. Sort of like the book "Unintended Consequences".

the city of Rockwell is also rich as shit fyi

sad that my county is the only county in Texas you can carry 4 ounces of bud without going to jail should be the whole state ... Harris County/Houston

Privateers and Buccaneers. Rest in peace Edward Teach (1680 - Nov. 22, 1718).

Sounds like a good way to cause even more civil unrest.

A TRUE conservative would be against this!

It's robbery pure and simple.

It is unbelievable that they do not need a conviction.