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IP: FW: Release: seizing money
From: "mcdonald" <[email protected]>
Subject: IP: FW: Release: seizing money
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 07:15:31 -0500
To: [email protected]
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 1998 11:06 PM
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Subject: FWD: Release: seizing money
From: [email protected]
Subject: Release: seizing money
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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
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For release: September 29, 1998
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For additional information:
George Getz, Press Secretary
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail: [email protected]
=======================================
New bill will allow police to "steal cash"
from travelers, warns Libertarian Party
WASHINGTON, DC -- It may soon be a crime to get on a plane or
drive down the highway in America with too much money, the Libertarian
Party warned today.
That's because a bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee
would allow police to assume that anyone traveling with more than
$10,000 in cash in so-called "drug transit areas" is a drug dealer --
and confiscate all their money.
"Tourists and business travelers, take note: You may soon have
to fear being mugged by your own government," warned Steve Dasbach,
Libertarian Party national director.
"Your government wants the power to label you a criminal and
seize all your money with no proof that you've committed a crime. In
other words, your government is about to give police a license to
steal."
The bill in question -- the Drug Currency Forfeitures Act -- is
sponsored by Senators Max Cleland (D-GA) and Charles Grassley (R-IA).
The senators say their bill is designed to "hit drug dealers where it
hurts the most: In the wallet."
The bill allows police to seize cash from any American
traveling through a drug transit area -- defined as an airport,
highway, or port of entry -- and would force citizens to go to court to
try to get the money back.
"Accusations without proof? Punishments without trials? Welcome
to America in 1998," said Dasbach. "With this bill, two U.S. Senators
want to gut the Constitution -- and strip away fundamental rights like
the presumption of innocence and the right to carry money without
having to explain your actions to the government."
One of the most repugnant provisions of the bill, Dasbach said,
is that people who want their money back will face a "rebuttable
presumption" of guilt. In other words, they most prove they are
innocent.
"Senator Cleland complained that courts frequently throw out
money-laundering cases for lack of evidence, so his innovative solution
was to stop requiring evidence -- and simply allow police to steal your
money," Dasbach said. "Instead of the government proving that you are
guilty, you must prove that you are innocent."
But why would anyone carry around $10,000 in cash, if they're
not a drug dealer?
"It's none of the government's business -- period," Dasbach
said. "The idea that any American should have to explain to the police
where their money came from is offensive, and the idea that the police
can pocket your money if they don't like your answers is downright
criminal."
In previous well-documented cases, he noted, the government has
seized money from a business traveler who had planned major cash
purchases for his company, and from a foreign-born American who was
bringing cash to relatives in another country. In both cases, the
courts ruled that the seizure was improper, and the victims got most of
their money back from the government.
This bill would reverse those kinds of cases, Dasbach
predicted, by essentially creating a new type of crime: Driving While
Rich and Flying While Affluent -- all in the name of the War on Drugs.
"What the Drug Currency Forfeitures Act really shows is that
once again, the War on Drugs has become an all-purpose excuse for a War
on Your Rights, such as the right to a fair trial and the right to get
on an airplane or drive down the highway without having to explain
yourself to a policeman," Dasbach said. "If Americans don't put a stop
to this, the politicians will not only steal all our money -- they will
also steal all our Constitutional rights."
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