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 - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom