Faith, Forfeiture and Foolishness

To covet our neighbors goods for the hope of reward or to exact unfair punishment is a foolishness that will undermined the fabric of society. People should strive for justice but have faith in mercy.

The Church is concerned about trends in society that promote greed and violence, oppression and abuse. Governments don't do anything. People do things in service of other people as instituted by what we call government. Nothing men do can be done with impunity to the soul.

The Bible talks abut penalties for crimes. Excessive penalties for crimes, become crimes themselves. Legal systems do not alter morality, but morality should alter legal systems.

Whereas the Church's business is not establishing legal systems that bind or unbind people it is interested in the morality of the people who uphold laws of God based on the morality of justice and mercy.

Forfeitures, greed, violence, law.
PLUNGING TOWARD AN AMERICAN POLICE STATE
GOVERNMENT SEIZURES AND FORFEITURES
March 25, 1998

Forwarded from Jim Hardin

The January '93 issue of MIA discussed the government's draconian (and unconstitutional) seizure/forfeiture laws, and how local state and federal government agencies are seizing the assets of innocent law-abiding Americans at a rate of about 1,000 seizures per week (or 52,000 per year -totaling over $800 million dollars in 1992) for alleged (but unproven) violations of government privacy, cash reporting, environmental, medical, child abuse, safety, tax, and other regulations. Although these seizures are receiving growing publicity, the number of seizures and amounts of assets being seized is continuing to grow and there is no evidence of a slowdown or cessation of the trend. In fact, all over the country, law enforcement officials are being trained in how to make more efficient, more effective, and more profitable seizures.

Several recent government attacks on citizens are illustrative:

1) PAUL AND ROSE BERGER, SAND SPRINGS, MONTANA - At 6:00 am., Wednesday, 3/25/93, more than 20 federal law enforcement agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management (armed and wearing bulletproof vests) invaded the ranch of Paul and Rosie Berger (aged 84 and 91) near Sand Springs, Montana. The agents, armed with a search warrant and seizure authority signed by a U.S. magistrate in Great Falls, descended on the Berger sheep and cattle ranch to look for evidence of eagle poisoning. A disgruntled ex-employee had accused the Bergers of poisoning eagles.

The federal agents seized two Chevrolet pickup trucks belonging to the Bergers as well as farm chemicals and other equipment. While Berger and his wife (both of whom have been recently hospitalized and are in poor health) were being questioned for over six hours and their property searched by the federal agents, the Bergers were not advised of the rights and were not allowed to call an attorney. For almost six hours, the Feds would not allow any lawyers, neighbors. or local reporters onto the property.

There are several interesting aspects to the unconstitutional government seizure: a) The federal agents took a Cable News Network television crew in with them on the raid-obviously desiring national television coverage if anything juicy was uncovered (just as they did in the initial BATF attack against the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco. The public relations coordinator for CNN later issued a statement adamantly denying that their raid was staged for CNN's cameras); b) The feds completely ignored and circumvented the local sheriff's department before and during the raid (totally blowing off any local or county jurisdiction in the so-called "investigation"); c) Poisoning eagles is now a federal crime-punishable by jail, fines, and/or confiscation of property, whether or not the accidental or intentional.

[ED. NOTE: Many western ranchers are plagued by coyotes, wolves, and other predators who prey upon and decimate their herds and their livelihood. For almost 150 years it has been traditional throughout the west that ranchers can protect their herds from wild animals. Hence, they hunt, trap, and poison such predators. But now, if they accidentally poison an eagle (or are simply accused of same) they can lose their property and go to jail - another byproduct of our present environmental insanity.]

d) The informant (the disgruntled ex-employee) will receive a 10-25% finders fee on any assets confiscated and ultimately sold at a government forfeiture auction (which for disgruntled ex-employees may be ultimately much more profitable than working for a living). [ED. NOTE: Isn't it incredible that in America in the 1990's if you fire an employee, he can accuse you of anything (no matter how unprovable) and then share in the loot or plunder that the government confiscates from you? We've come a long way since the local game warden simply used to fine you $15 for fishing without a license.]

2) ED JACOBSON, FULTON, CALIFORNIA - On Friday 3/27/93, armed federal marshals, accompanied by a team of U.S. Army Corp of Engineers under authority of a federal search warrant, descended on Jacobson's farm to investigate claims that cultivation two years ago disrupted vernal pools and endangered plants (a wetlands violation). A vernal pool is a depression in the earth (i.e., a low spot) which retains water long after winter rains have passed. The environmentalists say that vernal pools are important because they provide a habitat for several kinds of rare and endangered species and therefore it should not be lawful to disrupt a vernal pool via construction or farming. The environmental socialists have therefore gotten stiff penalties passed for any interference with vernal pools (i.e., fines of up to $5,000 Per day; confiscation of property on which the "environmental crime" has occurred; and federal jail sentences of up to five years). The Jacobson saga began in the fall of '91 when he was told by local fire the weeds growing on his family farm were becoming a hazard and would have to be removed. He checked with several mowing services and found the cost to clear his land would be several thousand dollars. Alternatively he decided to plow-under (or disk) the weeds so that oats could be planted for the harvest in the coming spring. He used an 8-inch blade, he used no fertilizers, and no insecticide - all he did was disc the soil and plant the seeds on his own land.

But now, for the federal crime of farming near a "so-called" vernal pool (never mind that it was on Jacobson's own land), and as an agent from the Army Corp of Engineers said, "creating significant impact on the hydrology of the soil, including changing how pools are fed by rain and how they drain," Jacobson could lose his property, be heavily fined, or go to jail for up to five years.

There are several interesting aspects to the Jacobson case: a) As in the Berger case above and in Waco, local or county law enforcement officials were ignored as the Feds moved in; b) Jacobson's constitutionally protected rights to do as he wishes with his own private property are being totally ignored; c) The enviro-socialists have come up with a whole new vocabulary and body of legalistic environmental laws whereby they can control and/or seize virtually any private property in American and jail any landowners who resist their encroachments or dictates regarding that property; d) Jacobson, on advice from his attorney, had resisted for over a year the feds coming onto his land to conduct a criminal wetlands investigation. The federal agents involved in the raid said that they had decided to raid the Jacobson farm because of his longstanding refusal to cooperate with the authorities. In other words, the Feds again demonstrated their attitude of "we'll get you and make an example out of you if you don't knuckle under and do as we say."

3) RUSTY HARDENBURGH, OHIO - In February '93, an FBI SWAT team of over a dozen armed agents swooped down on the Ohio home of Rusty Hardenburgh and confiscated over 100 computers used to power Rusty-N-Edie's BBS (Bulletin Board Service). Hardenburgh had allegedly posted commercial software among its gigabytes of shareware, freeware, GIF images, and other shareware. No arrests have been made or charges filed, nor are they likely to be. The informant, in this case, was the Software Publishers Association (SPA) who will undoubtedly get 10-25% of the proceeds of the 100 plus computers if they are liquidated in a government auction.

The ACLU has argued in defense of Hardenburgh that the seizure of his computers (which effectively put him out of business) is unconstitutional. [ED. NOTE: They are, of course, correct!] "The computers are not evidence of anything...This seizure is harassment, pure and simple." As PC Magazine points out, if this BBS can have its computers confiscated simply because it is "suspected" (not tried, convicted, or found guilty of having pirated software), "any PC reader 'suspected' of having pirated software can have his PC confiscated." As in Stalin's Russia, it only takes a tip from an unfriendly, neighbor. The SPA is that neighbor today. A disgruntled employee or jilted lover will be that neighbor tomorrow.

[ED. NOTE: The key factor in this case is that with no criminal or civil charges and no arrest, the computers were seized because of a "tip" and under the "guise" of an investigation. There was no due process, no protection of private property rights, no presumption of innocence until guilt is proven - it is purely and simply Nazi/Communist-style plunder of assets by a socialist government now running amuck and out of control.]

In 1989, Robert Haywood's Pharmacy in Royal Oak, Michigan was seized on "suspicion" that the pharmacist had allegedly distributed Valium for non-medical purposes. Haywood and his wife have since died (his daughters say due to the stress of having their business seized) and despite the fact that no trial was ever held, or charges proved, the business (with its merchandise still on the shelves) and its building, are still held by the government under U.S. drug forfeiture laws. Hundreds more cases of the government's unconstitutionally seizing assets keep surfacing each month [ED. NOTE: MIA subscribers send a number of examples and clippings on same to this writer each month.]

CONCLUSION

The present rash of government seizures and forfeitures did not start under Bill Clinton - they really started up under George Bush, and actually had their genesis in the Reagan years. There are several purposes behind the current proliferation of federal, state and local seizures of private property:

1) TO RAISE MONEY for the law enforcement agencies who, like the "pirates of the Caribbean," divvy up the loot or plunder among themselves or their agencies (local, state or federal) after a successful raid and seizure;

2) TO NAIL SOMEONE WHOM THEY DON'T LIKE who resists their regulatory/enforcement efforts, or who protests too loudly about their tactics. There is a growing "get the resistors (or dissidents)" mentality among government agents (or agencies) who will target and pursue a "resistor" with incredible tenacity and vengeance (i.e., the case of Randy Weaver, or Ed Jacobson, described above).

3) HIGH PROFILE PUBLICITY- When the government wants to push a particular program or new form of "people control" (i.e., gun control, child abuse, cash/privacy reporting, environmental, anti-alternate medicine legislation or initiatives) they will seek out a high profile case (often controversial) for a bust, raid or sting and then try to give it maximum publicity (i.e., Operation Waco) in order to make their point, to energize their program, gain momentum for further controls, and to

4) INTIMIDATE EVERYONE ELSE IN THAT GROUP into going along with the government in order to avoid similar treatment.

"Operation Intimidation" can be seen very clearly from the government massacre of almost 100 men, women and children in Waco- The message to gun owners and "dangerous religious cults" (a growing national menace by current liberal definition is that if you oppose us, we will crush (i.e., burn, destroy, kill) you. The intimidation factor is why 100 federal agents were used on day one in Waco, why over 20 agents were used to raid the ranch of the 80-year old Bergers (described above), and why 10 to 20 to 30 to 100 gun wielding agents are used routinely against innocent, law-abiding citizens.

5) PEOPLE CONTROL is the ultimate goal of these seizures and forfeitures - to prepare the American people to become obedient, passive serfs in the socialist America and New World Order which is being foisted upon us.

[end]

[Forwarded For Information Purposes Only - Not Necessairly Endorsed By The Sender - A.K. Pritchard]