Tuesday, May 29, 2012
When government is the looter - The Washington Post
Apparently, there just isn't any. It is what it is. Just awful...
George F. Will has the story on the Washington Post website:
"This town’s police department is conniving with the federal government to circumvent Massachusetts law — which is less permissive than federal law — to seize his livelihood and retirement assets.
In the lawsuit titled United States of America v. 434 Main Street, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, the government is suing an inanimate object, the motel Caswell’s father built in 1955. The U.S. Department of Justice intends to seize it, sell it for perhaps $1.5 million and give up to 80 percent of that to the Tewksbury Police Department, whose budget is just $5.5 million.
The Caswells have not been charged with, let alone convicted of, a crime. They are being persecuted by two governments eager to profit from what is antiseptically called the 'equitable sharing' of the fruits of civil forfeiture, a process of government enrichment that often is indistinguishable from robbery."
