The Use of Police as Robbers for the Government and the Social Harm Resulting from That Use

Abstract

The object of this essay is to look at the use of civil asset forfeiture (CAF) in the US and to show how CAF acts to damage relations among income and racial groups in the US society. Prior papers by others have shown the ways that CAF is constitutionally suspect and have developed arguments for its injustice. I agree with those but want to add the adverse effect on society to the other problems that contraindicate its use. This paper is written to show what social problems are likely and argue that the price paid is too much for any benefits derived.