Pubdate: Fri, 22 May 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Vic Church

WHEN JUSTICE IS UNJUST

Regarding the May 18 Wonkblog excerpt "How the IRS seized a man's 
life savings without ever charging him with a crime":

The Internal Revenue Service got a court order to seize Lyndon 
McLellan's bank account in a "civil forfeiture" action. No crime was 
alleged, just a pattern of suspicious actions-making bank deposits of 
less than $10,000. The article mentioned other civil forfeitures 
involving assets seized during traffic stops, on the premise that the 
assets might be tied to illicit activities. Why would law enforcement 
officers do such things? Clearly, the issue is not the solving of 
crime. Is it policy? Are there quotas? Do police and the government 
view all citizens as crooks - some caught, the rest guilty but not yet nailed?

The scary part is that the judicial system appears to have no 
interest in being just. Even after admitting that a seizure was a 
mistake, the IRS may refuse to pay the citizen's legal costs (as 
required by law, which the article noted), adding injury to insult.

How do we explain this callous attitude? And how do we correct it?

Vic Church, Olney
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom