Thieves With Badges And Mocking Patches: (Oh, Did You Think Govt Exists To Protect You?)
One of the incredible features of our Constitution is how it protects us from government. The "Separation of Powers" -- judicial, legislative, and executive -- is designed to work as a system of "check and balances" to guard against any one person or branch going overboard with power.
Sadly, I see more and more degrading of the protections against abuse in our society, and an especially shocking one is pictured in the form of a patch commemorating the DEA's "Asset Forfeiture" program.
"Asset forfeiture" is the an Orwellian term for "the government steals your shit and there's pretty much fuck all you can do about it." It was supposed to be a way of going after what the government deemed ill-gotten funds and property -- gotten with the sale of illegal drugs, for example.
It became a sick (and legal) way to steal from law-abiding citizens, who were not afforded "innocent till proven guilty" but instead needed to prove their money or property was NOT gotten through illegal means. Many couldn't afford lawyers and were simply screwed by the government.
Is this the country you thought you were living in? You want to be living in? Speak up. Write to your Senator, Congressman, the President. And give generously to the Institute for Justice, which works very hard to defend the victims of asset forfeiture and, in turn, to fight against its continued existence.
From Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) tweet about his WaPo story on the DEA's jacket patches, which he concedes "are often not produced in an official capacity, or with the knowledge or approval of an agency's higher-ups."
This particular patch came from Fred Repp's "Fred's Patch Corner." More about the patches in Raymond Sherrard's 2000 book, Encyclopedia of Federal Law Enforcement Patches.
via @laRosalind
Reminder for those who think government should do more: this is what more government looks like.
I R A Darth Aggie at March 21, 2015 6:40 AM
And the really sad part ? This used to be a rare thing. But as "revenue needs" increased, this became an easy cash cow for the various levels of government.
Moral: assuming that any new authority will be abused isn't paranoid, it's pretty much a given. . .
Keith Glass at March 21, 2015 6:50 AM
> This used to be a rare thing.
Maybe for federal agencies. But I agree with your larger point. Power in citizenship is always about abuse, no less in democratic capitalism than in authoritarian socialism.
I mean, let's imagine community law enforcement down in the Appalachian holler in the early 1900's (or earlier, or later). Or some shack of a ranch on the edge of a desert in the Southwest, or any place in rural America before communications and efficient transport and access were at hand...
We'd have to imagine that in those settings, the local sheriff (or other constabulary) could do terrible things to farmers or others who had assets that some wealthier, craftier person wanted to have.
The sheriff, after all was the guy with the nice shiny gun. And he didn't even have to pay for it. Or for the car from which he issued the notice to vacate.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at March 21, 2015 9:34 AM
The thing about sheriffs is generally they are elected locally, so there is an incentive to stay on the good side of the people in their county.
Abersouth at March 21, 2015 10:40 AM
Well, again, sure: In a modern, diverse, and well-educated community government with firm connections to authority, finance and involvement by distant parties, yeah... You're right: "generally they are elected locally."
But that doesn't describe most of the world, and it hasn't described law enforcement in much of the United States until recently.
I think Keith understands that even these conditions don't prevent people from abusing government power.
A few years ago, a Gothamphile friend was giving me a walking tour of Manhattan. We passed an older building that had been used by law enforcement in the 19th century. We were in the south part... I forget precisely where. He said "Try to imagine what's happened to people within those walls."
I found I didn't want to.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at March 21, 2015 11:15 AM
This was an interesting twenty seconds from Barnett a couple years ago.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at March 21, 2015 11:23 AM
Amy,
They recommended and linked to this post over at Samizdata. (That's a mostly British libertarian blog. After Reason's Hit & Run, probably the 2nd biggest libertarian blog.)
David Crawford at March 21, 2015 5:20 PM
Pretty messed up.
But I wonder if drug addicts could claim the patch as their own as well? Ya know, when they steal a car or burglarize a house of the precious jewels, cash, etc. in order to get the next fix.
Jason S. at March 21, 2015 7:28 PM
>Crid
I like Barnett. But didn't London have New York beat by twenty years or so for municipal police?
I don't see how what I said doesn't describe the US before "recently". I was under the impression that going back to the early 1800s sheriffs have been elected here in the majority of the states.
http://www.sheriffs.org/content/office-sheriff
And yes, abuse of power does still happen. Arpaio is an interesting study on that.
And as far as the larger point about abuse of power: I imagine there is less to be had via democratic capitalism than authoritarian socialism. Because democratic capitalism has a lot more freedom, which implies less trying to control everybody. I know it's the poison I prefer.
Abersouth at March 21, 2015 8:03 PM
I was under the impression that going back to the early 1800s sheriffs have been elected here in the majority of the states.
Interesting info. The longest tenured sheriff in US info reminded me of the county where I grew up. Our
sheriff was the longest tenured in the state in the 20th century.
I've heard tales of how he ran the cathouse, or was skimming $ from the action. Asset forfeiture of the old kind, you could say. I think everybody looked the other way for the "good ol' boy" sake.
The sheriff of the county on the southern border didn't fare as well: Three grand jury investigations of his alleged drug running to the bay area, as well as involvement in prostitution and two very suspicious unsolved murders, one of which was a 14 yr old girl he allegedly knew. The Governor gave him a job on the parole board to get him outta there. Pretty crazy stuff.
Jason S. at March 21, 2015 8:56 PM
Well, "sheriff or other constabulary"… Elected only by men until suffrage, only by whites until until until etc.
America's the best place in the world, and the way we do things is how the rest of the planet dreams of doing it... Whether or not we've done it well for a long time, and whether or not London got there with this-or-that first. Besides, in Britain, they arrived at a British standard of justice, which I'd presume you too would regard as second-rate. (The clip was more about the word "coppers"-- I hadn't known.)
America is not, and has not been, paradise. It's a continuing grind to get people to keep their hands to themselves, especially when they have a monopoly on the lawful use of force.
I'm certain --whatever the uptick of seizures by the innumerable new & old law enforcement agencies-- that misconduct of this kind was never rare enough.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at March 21, 2015 11:57 PM
However, see also.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at March 22, 2015 1:02 PM
Ah, the Battle of Athens.
1946. Tennessee.
I R A Darth Aggie at March 23, 2015 8:54 AM
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