Cops Take More of Your Stuff Than Robbers

"Civil Asset Forfeiture" Is to "Stealing" as "Enhanced Interrogation" Is to "Torture"

Your local police force has a new motto: To serve and protect and steal. Your property, including cold hard cash, can be legally taken from you even if you’re not guilty or a crime, or even if you aren’t charged with one. Civil asset forfeiture isn’t a new legal loophole that cops have found to take your stuff and use it to pay their own salaries, but this new statistic makes this grave injustice all that more enraging…

“Last year, according to the Institute for Justice, the Treasury and Justice departments deposited more than $5 billion into their respective asset forfeiture funds. That same year, the FBI reports that burglary losses topped out at $3.5 billion.”

That’s right, not only are the police officers taking your stuff -- for no good legal reason -- they are taking MORE of it than the criminals they protect you from, and furthermore, they are getting even better at it. Take a look at this graph:

Civil Asset Forfeiture graph from Washington Post Wonk Blog - Police Take More of Your Personal Items Than Burglars

In the past ten years, they’ve more than quintupled the property and cash they’ve taken from citizens. It’s no wonder that the police forces have more new toys, like tanks, tear gas, and armored vehicles, all meant to strike fear into the hearts of the people they are sworn to serve and protect.

What do you think of this astounding trend? Sound on below!

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Written by

Alex Logan

As cohost of the political commentary series, Jesse Ventura's Off the Grid, Alex Logan is The Body's body man. Alex and the former governor, action star, wrestler, and everything else in between, tackle the headlines of the week with an uncensored and independent spirit as we hold the two parties' feet to the fire. A deserter of Dayton, Ohio, Alex graduated from the University of Southern California Film School with a degree in Writing for Screen and TV. Alex has assisted in the booking of live acts for the Creative Artists Agency; written jokes, sketches and stunts for MTV and producer Johnny Knoxville; developed treatments and scripts for Anonymous Content and Mark Gordon Productions; and co-founded the Improv Olympic West’s headliner sketch group, The Mutiny, who play sold out shows around LA and at the Chicago and San Francisco Sketch Fests, as well as producing numerous videos for the front pages of YouTube, College Humor, and Funny Or Die. He did a stint as Editor and Technical Producer on Larry King’s Hulu talk show before partnering with Larry and Jesse to co-create Off the Grid. In the first season, Alex co-headed the entire production, writing, producing, and cohosting over 150 episodes. And he's back for Season Two, now serving as producer and host of a series of Man on the Street field pieces called, On the Grid. He also wrote this professional bio with his own two hands.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC its affiliates, or its employees.