Oklahoma Voters Need To Stop Civil Forfeiture Crimes Of Police

Government Stomps On Constitution

According to a recent Washington Post article, Desert Snow; a Guthrie, OKlahoma based company who provides law enforcement training, probably could be charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit theft.

The Washington Post report goes on to say;

"Behind the rise in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the techniques of “highway interdiction” to departments across the country.

One of those firms created a private intelligence network known as Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System that enabled police nationwide to share detailed reports about American motorists — criminals and the innocent alike — including their Social Security numbers, addresses and identifying tattoos, as well as hunches about which drivers to stop.

Many of the reports have been funneled to federal agencies and fusion centers as part of the government’s burgeoning law enforcement intelligence systems — despite warnings from state and federal authorities that the information could violate privacy and constitutional protections.

A thriving subculture of road officers on the network now competes to see who can seize the most cash and contraband, describing their exploits in the network’s chat rooms and sharing “trophy shots” of money and drugs. Some police advocate highway interdiction as a way of raising revenue for cash-strapped municipalities.

'All of our home towns are sitting on a tax-liberating gold mine,' Deputy Ron Hain of Kane County, Ill., wrote in a self-published book under a pseudonym. Hain is a marketing specialist for Desert Snow, a leading interdiction training firm based in Guthrie, Okla., whose founders also created Black Asphalt.

Hain’s book calls for 'turning our police forces into present-day Robin Hoods.'

Cash seizures can be made under state or federal civil law. One of the primary ways police departments are able to seize money and share in the proceeds at the federal level is through a long-standing Justice Department civil asset forfeiture program known as Equitable Sharing. Asset forfeiture is an extraordinarily powerful law enforcement tool that allows the government to take cash and property without pressing criminal charges and then requires the owners to prove their possessions were legally acquired.'"

This asset forfeiture law of 2004  needs to be struck down as unconstitutional .

Due Process Of Law

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

• [N]or shall any person . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law . . . .

Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

• [N]or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law . . 

U.S. Civil rights include:

• An unbiased tribunal.
• Notice of the proposed action and the grounds asserted for it.
• Opportunity to present reasons why the proposed action should not be taken.
• The right to present evidence, including the right to call witnesses.
• The right to know opposing evidence.
• The right to cross-examine adverse witnesses.
• A decision based exclusively on the evidence presented.
• Opportunity to be represented by counsel.
• Requirement that the tribunal prepare a record of the evidence presented.
• Requirement that the tribunal prepare written findings of fact and reasons for its decision.

David Van Risseghem

  The Oklahoma legislature, or even the voters; need to institute a state law, codifying this civil forfeiture abuse as the crime it truly is. This would empower the Oklahoma Attorney General to fight this abuse all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

How Am I Vulnerable?

Any cash you carry can be seized and kept without any constitutional due process. It is up to you to prove to the uniformed thieves that the money is legitimately yours and that you did not acquire it through any illegal means.
Even cash and goods on your property are at risk. The government wants all citizens to use the banks for everything. That way they can monitor all our business through banking records.

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