Yes. Civil forfeiture is an abomination. I do not understand how it has not been thrown out as incompatible with "nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" in the fifth amendment.
Apparently the police charge the money with having participated in a crime. The money of course, has no civil rights and is forfeited to the government, which forwards part of it (I ghink 20%) to the Department of Justice as something like a tax.
Punishment, perhaps, for those who, beyond all reason, don't trust the banking system, or who, in some cases, actually have engaged in the criminal activity that produced the money. The trouble even with the latter is that the authorities don't have to do the sometimes hard work of actually collecting evidence and proving a case to a jury.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
