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(Yes the police went too far as soon as it was discovered there was no bomb or bomb residue, and searching the flat is a permissible action as they want to be certain, but confiscation is not. But that's not the US there now, is it.)

But it does happen in the US. Assets are forfeited. In Volusia Co, Florida (Daytona Beach) Bob Vogel, Sheriff in the late '80's - early '90's, had drivers stopped and searched on I95 just because they fit a "profile" he developed for drugs. And if something like a few thousand dollars were found in the search it would be seized and he would keep it even if you could prove the money was your's legitimately. The only way to get it back would be to sue, which could eat up what was taken from you in legal fees.

If it was all about business, marijuana would be as legal as milk.

But my point is that it's not all about business. There's some insane prejudice involved also.

Well I guess it's not all about business.... it's all about money.

See, the current "war on drugs" creates a huge Seizure Business for the U.S. Government. If they legalized MJ, they wouldn't be able to steal property, money, etc. from the subjects of the USA anymore... :)

Your whole response just shows how misguided you are. Lots put downs but no substance. Not even recognition of what goes on in the world around them.

Or maybe, just maybe it's because kids have parents who don't raise them right. Maybe, just maybe we should point the cold finger of blame upon those who have the most influence in their upbringing, those who tell their kids, implicitly or explicitly, that some people don't deserve equal freedoms.

It is obvious that you do not have kids, or you are one of those who are not raising them right. I know from experience that the liberal controlled public school system is doing their best to indoctrinate children into their (liberal) way of thinking. For example, gun control is high on the liberal agenda. Today liberally controlled government schools are teaching our children that the Second amendment does not appply to individuals. They are being taught that the right to bear arms belongs to the government. They are being taught only government should possess weapons. That intrepretation goes against the flow of the entire Bill of Rights, since all other admendments in the Bill of Right concerns rights of citizens which the government can not usurp. Our forefathers recognized the peoples right to over throw a tyrannical government, and wanted to ensure that the government they were putting into place could be overthrown should the need arise. Tyranny flourishes with an unarmed population.

Furthermore citizens property rights are being threatened by seizure laws pushed through by Congress sessions controlled liberals. This has resulted in a 21st century USofA that posesses conditions existing in England before the Magna Carta, when rulers almost automatically seized all the property of any person convicted of a felony. Such seizures spurred English barons to force King John to limit his powers in 1215. Except in the US today, one does not need to be convicted, one does not even need to be charged. All you need is to cross paths with a police officer having a bad day.

The enemy you think exists doesn't. You are being lied to.

Actually the enemy I see does exist. The enemy I see is the out of control government. This problem was caused by both liberals and conservatives. Government at all levels must be reduced, and severely. The forceful seizing of assets, also known as the Federal Income Tax needs desparately to be abolished. As it stands now the average US citizen has no idea how much he/she paying in taxes. You ask someone how much they get paid, and they will tell you how much them net after taxes, not what they gross before taxes are taken out. Now that tax season is upon us, if you ask someone how much they paid in taxes, you will probably be told what they owed or they got a refund, but I doubt they will know how much they paid in total. Taxing me for national defense is one thing, taxing me to subsudize some politician's constituants is another. Taxing me to support scientific research is one thing, taxing me so an "artist" can frame a US flag and splatter it with excrement is another. I would much rather keep the money that the governement siezes in the form of taxes, after all I did earn that money by the sweat of my brow and the labor of my back. After all, who knows better how to spend money I earned than myself? I am not being greedy, I am just saying the government does not know what is best for me and my family.

By the way, I am not conservative, I am libertarian. Government is meant to serve the people, not the other way around. Both liberals and conservatives have forgotten this important fact. I find it pissingly funny that you assumed I was conservative from a few words in reply. Maybe you like to take a little test. The results might surprise you. Then again if you believe that government is the answer to all of life's problems, maybe not.

I am not being trite when I say read the US Bill of Rights.

Why? It's not like it's being respected by lawmakers.

the USA has substantial advantages in the Ownership of Property

Except that the police can just confiscate your property and you have to sue (if you still have enough money left to do so) to get it back. In the majority of seizures, the people whose property gets taken do not even get charged with a crime. Here is a good essay on this issue. Some cases where money was taken without good grounds. And no, they can't do this where I live.

rights to political dissent

A US kid got suspended for wearing a T-shirt with "Anarchy." The government actively tries to prevent people from advertising messages that go against government policy. An anti-war community organization was infiltrated by the police.

These involve a vast improvement in the rights to relief from problems with the government via a court system that despite all its flaws is orders of magnitude more likely to answer to the interests of ordinary people when they dispute with the strong and powerful than in EU or elsewhere.

The US legal system has incarcerated an extremely large part of its population. Many of those are victim of the war on drugs. However, while drug use is no lower among caucasians, three quarter of the people convicted for these crimes are black or latino. The same goes for the death penalty. Black & latino see the needle far more than caucasians. In short, your legal system certainly seems to take it out on the lower class.

As for Europe trodding on the ordinary man, do you have any evidence to back that up? Because I don't see too much of that happening here.

In the USA most people take for granted that the Police and Courts actually will deal with problems and redress without bribery.

I never had to bribe the police or the courts. What parts of the EU are you talking about? Nigeria?

EU types have been raised under a system where they delt with a thousand years of entrenched bureaucracy with its systematic and embedded corruption at a level beyond any American Imagination.

In my country (The Netherlands), 10% of the workers are government employees. In the US, it is 14%. 'Nough said.

As for corruption and bribery: according to the 2003 Corruption Perceptions Index, my EU country is ranked 7th (with a 8.9/10). The US is ranked 18 (with a 7.5/10). The Bribe Payers Index 2002 ranked The Netherlands 6th (with a 7.8/10), while the US was ranked 13th (with a 5.3/10).

Much of the current Economic troubles in the USA and Social Discord are the result of this trend towards EU solutions and methods.

An important reason for social discord in the US seems to be that a small part of the population is screwing the rest. The only reason why many people have to work two jobs, while others have more money than they can spend in two lives, is because they believe the bullshit of "what is good for business is good for you."

In synopsis, the EU is a Bureacratic Super State where Citizens have no particular rights except those granted by PERMIT.

Do you know that the Union has a really low number of bureaucrats (~30.000) and that the nations have very strong control over what the Union does? NO, of COURSE you DIDN'T know, did you? Shouting hard is much easier than providing proof, isn't it?

The Brussels system will further dominate the area by an Oligarchy and the delivery of individual freedom in

And in the US, those guns have stopped your government passing laws that threaten your freedoms, right?

Oh... wait

The War on Drugs has been responsible for massive amounts of federal asset seizures. I can't remember if it was Bush or Reagan, but one of 'em enacted a law that gave the federal law enforcement agencies the abillity to seize your goods if they even SUSPECTED you were involved in some form of drug trade or possession, and they don't have to disclose the "evidence" that led them to believe you were guilty. This resulted in a lot of innocent people taking it in the bung.

I see a parallel here in recent events. The government has just come up with another way to criminalize otherwise innocent people. We already have a greater percent of the population incarcerated than any nation (but, hey, it's good for the economy!).

The scariest thing, to me, is that if the government spent as much time and money trying to educate us about drugs, rather then spend it on propaganda, we might not have so many lives destroyed. Similarly, if we spent as much time and money on finding a peaceful solution to the terrorist problem, instead of bombing the hell out of people and whittling away at US Citizens' civil liberties, maybe we could get somewhere.

Meanwhile, I'm a bit scared that my political beliefs will get me thrown in a jail. Please, you may not agree that we shouldn't be bombing Afghanastan, and you may not agree with my politics, but every single American is in danger of losing our freedoms. And that's what we are supposed to be fighting for in the first place, isn't it?

Speak out!

On May 20, 1993, The City's Police Department
obtained a warrant to enter the home of Mr.
Lawrence Perkins as part of a homicide
investigation involving a former boarder of the
Perkins household. Neither Mr. Perkins nor any
member of his family were suspects in the
investigation. During the search, the West
Covina Police Department confiscated a
number of items including $2,629 in cash.