End policing for profit

The General Assembly has an opportunity to end one of the more egregious forms of policing for profit in the reconvened session. The worthies managed not to pass Del. Mark Cole’s bill that would have prevented law enforcement from seizing property “…until the person whose property is the subject of the forfeiture action has been convicted of the crime authorizing the forfeiture and has exhausted all appeals.”

There were caveats to the measure, which passed the House overwhelmingly, but those did not prevent it from dying quietly in that graveyard of common sense, the Senate Finance Committee.

Delegate Cole and Sen. Dave Marsden got together and forged a compromise. Via a post from Mark on his Facebook page in early April, we learned:

GOOD NEWS, asset forfeiture reform has been brought back from the dead! The language from my House Bill 1287, which would require a conviction before assets can be forfeited has been added to Senate Bill 721 via an amendment by the Governor.

Senator Marsden, the sponsor of SB 721, and I had discussed amending his bill to include the language during session, but we did not have the support to get it done. Senator Marsden then went to the Governor and got him to reverse course (the administration opposed HB 1287 during session) and add the language.

I want to thank Senator Marsden and the Governor for their efforts on behalf of protecting property rights!

Now the Senate and House must approve the amendment before it will become law. I am confident that we can get House approval, I am not so sure about the Senate, since they have already killed HB 1287. I encourage everyone to contact their state Senator asking them to support the amendment to SB 721.

That was good news. And now it appears to have turned bad. From Mark’s FB page today we see this:

Bad news for asset forfeiture reform. I received word that Governor McAuliffe has flip-flopped on the issue again and is now asking the Senate to defeat his own amendment to SB 721!

The language from my House Bill 1287, which would require a conviction before assets can be forfeited was added to Senate Bill 721 via an amendment by the Governor. Governor McAuliffe opposed HB 1287 during regular session and then reversed course and added the language from it to SB 721. Now he has reversed course once again and is working to defeat the amendment to SB 721!

Why the flip-flop? Only the Macker knows for sure. But the suspicion falls back on the law enforcement lobby, which opposed Cole’s bill in the first place.

Regardless of the reason for McAuliffe’s dizzying turn on this amendment, the House and Senate should leave him to spin and embrace the amendment. It’s not only the right and essential thing to do, it will show the electeds understand the value of simple constitutional matters like due process.

The choice is clear and simple: stand with Mr. Madison and fundamental rights, or allow policing for profit to continue.

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