Countering Police Civil Asset Forfeiture (aka Legalized Theft and Vandalism)

What just happened to Adam Kokesh also happened to me twice before in May 2000 and June of 2001. Both times I was driving a brand new SUV with less than 5K on the odometer. The first time I was on I-70 driving east from Denver having just crossed into the Kansas state line. The 2nd time was on I-40 driving east from Las Vegas through El Reno, OK. For years I also drove an old rusty 1982 Chevy Van that had a market value under $1,000 and never was I pulled over while driving it.

I actually wasn’t aware of why these incidents happened until much later, but this article gives a good understanding of why these incidents happen. The below video by Adam Kokesh shows what happened after he was bailed out from prison.

In the 2nd incident in El Reno, OK, my SUV was similarly trashed. They will typically ask for you to step out of the vehicle if they want to do a search after asking for license and registration. They may try to pressure or intimidate you into consenting to a search, but the fact of the matter is you should never consent to a search. They will search anyway if they think they have probable cause, but what they’re really doing is making their results legally binding. When you say yes, you have no recourse. If you say no, then any evidence they find (or plant) in your vehicle can be legally challenged.

There is never a time where giving consent helps your situation. It can only make the situation worse, so politely refuse on 4th amendment grounds. This was my first mistake in Kansas and Oklahoma. I finally saw some videos on this subject matter around 2005 about the legal implications for what was going on and where I went wrong in dealing with these thugs.

source

The use of drug sniffing dogs is a highly questionable means for getting around the 4th amendment. For one thing the language barrier makes it impossible to know why a dog “hits” (whatever that means) on something. In my situation in Oklahoma, the dog didn’t want to hit, so the officer brought the dog up to the rear gate and yanked on the chain until the dog was practically choking with his hind legs leaving the ground. Naturally the front paws will then flail and the officer counted that as a “hit”. So they proceeded to trash my brand new SUV for the next 45 minutes.

There was one point after the dog “hit” where I really started to think that the officer might plant something because if he was that desperate to get a hit, what else was he willing to do? I was cuffed immediately with my hands in front of my body, the officer saying that I wasn’t under arrest (this is technically wrong. Once in cuffs that’s legally arrested). He said it was for “my safety”. The level of double speak is astonishing.

Over the next 45 minutes, I was mentally weighing the option to use my cuffs to strangle that officer to death if he planted evidence. He was a small man (a little bigger than horse jockey size) and I was built like an NFL offensive lineman at 6’4” 285 lbs (at the time my max bench press was around 400 lbs). Should I sacrifice my life with the knowledge that I just killed a dirty cop but have the news glorify that officer and my family name tarnished? Or should I just try to fight it out legally in a hopeless lawsuit against the state that would inevitably win by whatever fraudulent evidence it could come up with?

(me in 2003)

In the end he said I was free to go and I breathed a big sigh of relief. This officer apparently wasn’t willing to go that far to beef up his arrest quota. What I discovered the next day though (the search was conducted at night) was that the rear gate was scratched by the officers during the search. I was already in Missouri by then.

What they are actually trying to do in these stops has nothing to do with protecting the public and everything to do with beefing up the police department budget and their salaries. This is because laws have been written making it legal for the police to keep what they seize for themselves. This has corrupted their highway patrols and introduces a massive conflict of interest that turns these patrols into shopping sprees. It also explains why I was never pulled over in my van that was worthless even though one time I realized that I was about 5 months late on my inspection (in 1989).

Civil asset forfeiture was originally introduced as an idea for weakening drug cartels, so that their operations abroad would be more limited. At the time of Reagan, police weren’t legally allowed to keep what they found, but instead, the booty went to higher level state or federal government offices and distributed back into budgets that alleviated tax burdens. Civil asset forfeiture sounds good in theory. The problem is that in practice, you’re replacing one gang that doesn’t have authorization with another gang that does.

source

Over the years police unions and lobbyists have pushed for laws making it legal for the departments that make the seizures able to keep what they seize for themselves. This is why they look for fancy new vehicles and RV’s because there’s more money in it.

If you’re ever subject to these circumstances, I recommend that you have a combination lock on your drivers door. If you’re ordered out of your car, then lock all doors and roll up all windows and leave the keys inside your car. When they ask for the combination to the door, then you can use the 5th amendment right to not incriminate yourself. Remember that you can prove nothing in favor to a police officer. All evidence is either against you or is thrown out.

You should also record as much as possible for your own safety. Have both an Android phone recording and a dash cam recording the incident and leave it on live streaming to the internet as you exit your vehicle.

The justice system in the USA is corrupt and is a business built on the financial bottom line which has taken precedence over righteousness.

---

Donations (public bitcoin address):

3FwxQsa7gmQ7c1GXJyvDTqmT6CM3mMEgcv

---

---