John Oliver tackled civil forfeiture laws, by which the government can seize someone’s property without charging him or her with a crime, on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight.”
Oliver played a clip that described civil forfeiture as “legalized robbery by law enforcement” and noted how difficult it would be to report asset seizure to police.
“Give me a description of what the guy looked like,” the comedian said, imitating a police officer before switching to the victim’s voice. “Well, to be honest, he looked a lot like the guy currently asking me what the guy looked like.”
Oliver noted that our property has fewer rights than we do.
“At this point, I’m surprised objects don’t have their own civil rights leader,” he said.
He then explained that law enforcement officers “are allowed to keep most or all of the money they seize,” describing them as an “anti-Spiderman” with “great power” and “no responsibility.”
Noting the case of officers in Texas who bought a margarita machine with seized funds, he said the officers “were literally using this money as their own personal slush fund.”
Oliver said the issue of civil forfeiture leaves society with two choices.
“We can take a hard look at reforming them or, at the very least, we need to reform our network cop dramas to make them a lot more representative of what is actually happening,” he said.
Watch the video below, courtesy of HBO:
The police are just acting under the “invisible hand” of the market. The civilians are just considered a capital fund.
John Oliver has done more journalism in a few months than the cable networks have in years. I had no idea that cops could legally do this! Why isn’t it more widely known? Oh I know why! Fox is busy practicing racism instead of journalism. CNN is trying to be baby FOX and MSNBC is just lost.
Indeed. More than most “Progressive” websites as well. Note that Oliver doesn’t do pieces on the latest stupid thing that Sarah Palin said - he actually covers issues, not personalities and shallow partisan gossip.
Civil forfeiture, privatized prisons. Disgraceful.
This practice has been going on for decades, mostly under the radar for the public. It is a major conflict of interest for public officials to be able to confiscate property that later is given to them for their use. The new America, not police but militias that self fund of the backs of those unfortunate enough to fall into their hands.