civil forfeiture

390 – Civil Asset Forfeiture, Policing for Profit

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Several years ago I wrote an article about the Battle of Athens, TN. In the article I showed the corruption in McMinn County Sheriff’s Department, where the Sheriff and his deputies did not receive a salary, but were paid for everyone they booked, incarcerated, and released. This perverse incentive let to deputies routinely boarding buses to “fine” and jail the passengers for any alleged violations they could come up with. When subject to this corruption, many GIs returning from World War II were led to challenge the corrupt county Sheriff and other office holders. This challenge led not only to an embattled election, but an armed uprising in an attempt to restore the rule of law.

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