Forfeiture, Racism, and Gun Control
Dave Kopel writes on Reason about gun control in the post-war south. Among the things he says, he writes:
Under the Mississippi law, a person informing the government about illegal arms possession by a freedman was entitled to receive the forfeited firearm.
Forfeiture like this has been used for centuries, since at least the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries, to hinder the defense of the innocently accused, and to encourage their persecution.
Today, we do the same thing to those accused of drug crimes, who are disproportionately minority. The agencies that make the stop--often, there is not even enough evidence to make an arrest--get to keep the money and things that they took from the victim. And where the victim, if arrested, is technically entitled to a presumption of innocence, meaning that the state has to prove that they are guilty, their assets have no such presumption. The assets are presumed guilty, and it is up to the victim to prove that the assets are not guilty.
Of course, the less money that the victim has, the more likely it is that they won’t be able to afford to go to court to prove that their money is innocent, because their money has been taken by law enforcement. As Peter McWilliams writes in “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do”,
If you are arrested for a crime involving drugs, it will be harder for you to obtain the services of an attorney than if you had been arrested for a less serious charge such as, say, murder. If an attorney takes your case for a drug charge and you are found guilty, the attorney may be forced by the courts to give the law enforcement agencies making your arrest all the money you’ve paid to the attorney. It’s part of the asset forfeiture law. Consequently, criminal attorneys are hesitant to take on drug cases. Murderers, rapists, and robbers are getting better legal representation than druggies.
Seizing the firearms of blacks in the south served to make them even more vulnerable to violent racist attacks as well as to encourage others to turn them in. Forfeiture always seems to end up serving evil.
- The Klan’s favorite law
- Dave Kopel writes about gun control in the postwar south, and how it was used to further racism and assist the Klan.
- Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do
- Well before he died, Peter McWilliams placed the entire text of his work on-line for general viewing. It’s a massive collection of information and reasoned editorial about the dangers of all forms of prohibition in the United States.
- Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do•: Peter McWilliams at Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do
- Enforcing laws against consensual activities is un-American, says McWilliams. This book is mostly about American crimes and American freedom. He starts at the beginning: the enlightenment and John Locke’s writings about “the purpose of government”. Locke’s ideas about natural rights were to directly influence Thomas Jefferson’s writings a hundred years later. “No man can be forced to be rich or healthful; God Himself will not save men against their wills.”
More racist laws
- Georgia drug war unfairly targets Indian immigrants
- Federal law enforcement in Georgia has decided to crack-down on Indian-owned convenience stores.
- Tuskegee deception aimed at whom?
- One major difference between the Tuskegee study and laws against affordable firearms is just how transparent the deceptions in favor of such laws are.
- Bad science dangerous to children
- It turns out that the term “meth babies” has as much basis in truth and science as the term “crack babies”: none whatsoever. Yet again, bad science is being used in defense of bad policy.
- The self-defense Tuskegee
- Killing the poor with misplaced kindness. President Clinton cries “Never Again”, but that’s just newspeak for “ASAP”.