How Bitcoin Defeats Civil Asset Forfeiture

There’s been a silent epidemic not covered by the mainstream news media (at least in the USA) known as “civil asset forfeiture” or “equitable sharing” which are basically euphemisms to excuse government justified theft. The scenario typically happens like this…

I will tell you what happened to me in El Reno, Oklahoma one evening in June, 2001. I had just bought a brand new Ford Explorer Sport that was about 2 months old and I was on the way back from a long road trip from Las Vegas and on vacation traveling east on rte 40. Picture of my truck at the time…

It was a couple of hours after sunset so I had my lights on including fog lights. This is illegal in Oklahoma but who’s going to read all the legal fine print before crossing state lines? A small infraction like this is their route in for escalation. The officer saw my NY plates and made the assumption (or perhaps hope) that I had drugs and pulled me over. I never speed and have a perfect driving record so the officer went on a fishing expedition after saying that having fog lights on at night is illegal in Oklahoma.

Being naive about police procedures I was totally unprepared so when he asked if he could search the vehicle I said yes. You should never under any circumstances consent to searches. You have the right not to consent which is why police have to ask. If you say yes, you may have given the department a bonus check because you’ve just made the search legal without any recourse in court to have evidence thrown out by your lawyer. If there was probable cause, then police would search anyway without your consent.

At this point he ordered me out of the vehicle and placed me in cuffs saying “you’re not under arrest, but this is for everyone’s protection” (this is of course legally incorrect because as soon as you’re in cuffs, you’re arrested). He cuffed my hands in front which I thought was unusual, then placed me next to the squad car and ordered a K9 unit. I think the main reason he put me in cuffs was because I’m a former super heavy weight power lifter. At the time I weighed about 285 lbs and the officer was built like a horse jockey. I was roughly the same size and strength as many NFL offensive linemen. Here's what I looked like a couple of years later at 6'4" 322 lbs when I peaked in strength...

Waiting another 10 minutes or so the K9 unit arrived and the officer guided the dog around my Ford. The dog was essentially showing disinterest after going around the vehicle several times. At this point, the officer yanked on the dog chain while holding him at the rear gate to my SUV. He did this so hard that I thought the dog was going to choke.

Next the officer came up to me and said that they were going to search the rear because the dog “hit” on a scent. Not one for using drugs at all except for my blood pressure medication (which was clearly not working very well), I was getting seriously worried that the officer might try to plant something because I knew that drugs being present was beyond the realm of possibility.

At this point, many things crossed my mind. Was the officer trying to up his quota? What would I do if he said they found drugs? Again knowing this to be impossible the thought crossed my mind that I might have to use the cuffs in front of me to break that officers neck and probably end up dead myself in the process when he got close again. I was thinking that at least I would sacrifice my life to get rid of a corrupt cop but that my family would probably never really know the truth of what happened after the coverup.

It was a very tense half hour or so after that and the back of my truck was a complete mess afterwards, but when he said you’re free to go, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. He said not to drive with fog lights on and I was on my way. I didn’t receive any citation. What I didn’t realize was that when the officer yanked the dog by the collar, the dogs nails scratched up the rear gate and because it was night, I didn’t see that until daylight the next day.

What I didn’t understand was why they did this until many years later. I was stopped a few times after that when my truck was new but less frequently later on and now it sits in the side yard with nearly 250k miles and I have a used 2003 model of the same type and color vehicle and use the 2001 for parts. Interestingly, I haven’t been stopped at all for several years now and now I know why:

American Shakedown, police won't charge you but they'll grab your money

This is what police are looking for:

(Google images - public domain)

Shiny new vehicles in the mind of a cop = potential cash.

How did we get to this point? Civil asset forfeiture is nothing new and was first implemented (I think) by Ronald Reagan. In the early days policing for profit didn’t have as much teeth, but after 911, police acquired new powers to seize assets. The justification was seemingly sound at the time in that by seizing the assets of drug lords, you make their criminal organizations weaker and reduce their ability to commit future crimes. The problem was that the power of money has seemingly created a new species of criminal that now wears a badge. This situation has created a perverse incentive and has corrupted police forces around America.

So the question is, how do we stop it? Do we all drive old vehicles from now on? Keeping your money in the bank isn’t totally safe either (for reasons beyond the scope of this article). This is where bitcoin comes in. Bitcoin is impervious to such theft if you know how to store it. If you have bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, what you do not want to do is keep them on an exchange. Instead, only use exchanges to buy, then immediately send it offline to your cold wallet.

Exchanges like Coinbase violate the decentralization principles set forth by Satoshi Nakamoto. In essence, when you keep your coins on an exchange, you’re just trading one central bank for a different central bank. Andreas Antonopoulos has a simple rule, “Your keys, your coins, not your keys, not your coins”. You know they are your coins if you have a 12 - 24 word seed that serves as a backup mnemonic for your private key. Bitcoin’s power lies in the fact that it makes everyone who stores it correctly into ones own banker.

The best way to do this is to find a hardware wallet such as a Trezor or Ledger S Nano.

(Google images - public domain)

https://shop.trezor.io
https://www.ledgerwallet.com

Many people make the assumption that because it’s a hardware wallet, that your coins are stored on it. That’s not the case. What you really have is a keychain. It is a single purpose computer that stores your keys with a minimal interface that creates high security. Your coins exist in cyberspace on the blockchain with encumbrances that prove ownership. These devices also have duress passwords that make it impossible for anyone to know whether they found your “fortune”.

Make sure you follow all security procedures and back up your seed, or memorize it (there are memory tricks but only do this if you have a strong memory). I also suggest you use a 24 word seed. If you write the seed down, make sure it’s in a safe place! Then next time when authorities use their badge as an excuse to steal and they ask for your password, plead the 5th or use your duress password.