Will the new AG support civil forfeiture reform?

Will New AG Support Civil Forfeiture Reform? from the Warning Signs by Alan Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

Loretta Lynch - Read the Warning Signs

The Wednesday hearings on the confirmation of a new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, lasted hours because members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were often called away to vote.

In the wake of the scandals surrounding the manner in which Eric Holder’s Department of Justice has functioned, the hearing, led now by Republicans, could have been harsh, but it was not. The Wall Street Journal characterized the mood in the hearing room as “cordial.”

Watching it on CSPAN, I can confirm that.

In early November the Wall Street Journal, in an opinion titled “The Next Attorney General: One area to question Loretta Lynch is civil asset forfeiture”, it noted that “As a prosecutor Ms. Lynch had also been aggressive in pursuing civil asset forfeiture, which has become a form of politicking for profit.”

“She recently announced that her office had collected more than $904 million in criminal and civil actions in fiscal 2013, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Liberals and conservatives have begun to question forfeiture as an abuse of due process that can punish the innocent.”

That caught my eye because the last thing America needs is an Attorney General who wants to use this abuse of the right to be judged innocent until proven guilty. Civil forfeiture puts no limits on the seizure of anyone’s private property and financial holdings. It is a law that permits this to occur even if based on little more than conjecture. It struck me then and now as a bizarre and distinctly un-American law.

Writing in the Huffington Post in late 2014, Bob Barr, a former Congressman and the principal in Liberty Strategies, told of the passage of the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act (CAFRA) in 2000 “as a milestone in the difficult—almost impossible—task of protecting individual rights against constant incursions by law-and-order officials.” The problem is that civil forfeiture was and is being used to seize millions.

“The staggering dollar amounts reflected in these statistics, however,” wrote Barr, “does not pinpoint the real problem of how law enforcement agencies at all levels of government employ the power of asset forfeiture as a means of harming, and in many instances, destroying the livelihood of individuals and small businesses.”

“In pursuing civil assets, the government need never charge the individuals with violations of criminal laws; therefore never having to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are guilty of having committed any crimes.”

As noted above, as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Ms. Lynch’s office had raked in millions from civil forfeiture. Forbes magazine reports that she has used it in more than 120 cases and, prior to the hearing to confirm her as the next Attorney General US News and World Report noted on January 26 that Ms. Lynch’s office had quietly dropped a $450,000 civil forfeiture case a week before the hearings. She clearly did not want to answer questions on this or any other comparable case.

Just one example tells you why there is legitimate concern regarding this issue and it appeared in a January 3rd edition of Townhall.com. I recommend you read the account written by Amy Herrig, the vice president of Gas Pipe, Inc, a Texas company that an editor’s note reported as “faced with extinction of a civil asset forfeiture to the federal government of more than $16 million. Neither Herrig nor her father, Jerry Shults, have been charged with any criminal offense.”

Jerry Shults is a classic example of an American entrepreneur. After having served in the Air Force and serving in Vietnam where he earned a Bronze Star, Shults moved to Dallas where he began selling novelty items at pop festivals throughout Texas.

Since the first store that he opened had gas pipes exposed in the ceiling, he dubbed it Gas Pipe, Inc. Suffice to say his hard work paid off for him. By the late 1990s, he had seven stores, a distribution company, a five-star lodge in Alaska, and was an American success story. By 2014 the company had grown to fourteen stores and other notable properties.

By then he had been in business for nearly 45 years and employed nearly two hundred people. And then someone in the northern district of Texas, Dallas division, initiated a civil forfeiture seizure against him. I was so appalled by his daughter’s description of events I secured a copy of the September 15 complaint that was filed.

I am no attorney, but it looked to me as spurious as one could have imagined, except for the details of Gas Pipe’s assets. On 88 single-spaced pages, those were spelled out meticulously and all were subject to seizure despite the fact that not a single instance of criminality had been proven in a court of law. Imagine having 45 years of success erased by one’s own government in this fashion. It is appalling.

Assuming Ms. Lynch will be approved for confirmation as our next Attorney General, civil forfeiture is the largely hidden or unknown issue that could spell disaster for countless American businesses, large and small, in the remaining two years of the Obama administration. She has a record of pursuing it. The upside of this is that the current AG, Eric Holder, in early January announced that the DOJ would no longer acquire assets seized as part of a state law violation.

On the same day of Ms. Lynch’s hearing, January 28, writing in The Hill’s Congress Blog, former Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA) was joined by Bruce Mehlman, a former Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the George W. Bush administration, to raise a note of warning.

“The topic of civil asset forfeiture should be an important part of the discussion with Lynch. As U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Lynch was the top official in a hotbed of civil asset forfeiture—helping to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars under the program in recent years.”

Ms. Lynch was not asked about civil forfeiture by either the Republican or Democrat members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was a lost opportunity and, if the new Attorney General applies her enthusiasm for it to the entire nation, it will be yet another Obama administration nightmare.

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Ferguson: Activists upset over looting videos

After tacitly condoning Ferguson looting, activists now upset about video showing actual looting by Michele Hickford, Editor-in-Chief at Allen B. West.com


Recently released by local police in Missouri, this surveillance video shows an astonishing use of force by young looters, taking out their frustrations on a market in the city of Dellwood near Ferguson in November after the Grand Jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson.

After unsuccessfully breaking down the door, they simply take down the adjacent wall, and the phalanx of looters streams inside.

Police said they released the video in the hope that citizens might help investigators identify the more than 180 looters who vandalized the building.

However, despite fanning the flames of violence and looting, Eric Holder’s Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is unlikely to bring charges against Officer Darren Wilson after conducting a thorough investigation into the claim that he had violated Michael Brown’s civil rights.

As Hot Air reports, “this comes after Attorney General Eric Holder traveled to Missouri and told anguished local residents that he believed racial antipathy played a role in the drama that played out in that town last year.”

“The investigation into Wilson is slated to come to an end in the spring, and Holder will likely reveal that the Feds found no evidence sufficient to charge Wilson with a civil rights crime before he leaves his post. It will be a familiar scene.

Activists were deeply wounded when the DOJ failed to find sufficient evidence to charge George Zimmerman with having violated Trayvon Martin’s civil rights or even that he harbored racially insensitive sentiments.”

In both of these high profile, supposed examples of racially motivated violence against black men, activists simply can’t handle the truth.

But activists would prefer the particular truth in this video stayed hidden.

About the release of the video, Atlanta Black Star columnist Nick Chiles wrote “It’s a dramatic illustration of law enforcement attempting to subvert the emerging narrative of black youth energized and engaged, flooding the streets of this country in demonstrative displays of their anger.”

Black youth energized and engaged is a great thing. But abject lawlessness does nothing to help the cause, battle prejudice or engender sympathy.

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Paris terrorism rally over: Now what?

New York Times self-censors; Holder can’t say we’re at war with radical Islam. You really think a rally matters? from the files of Colonel Allen B. West

Recently, I was asked to comment on whether or not we’re turning a page in the conflagration against Islamo-fascism and jihadism after last week’s horrific attacks in Paris. Everyone seems to believe because of the mass rallies, there is a new sentiment.

I tend to disagree — although I pray we are finally willing to push political correctness aside. I fear these rallies are just the typical immediate reaction from those of us in the West — only to be quelled by our short attention span and the relentless news cycle. Will this just be another “#BringBackOurGirls” episode? And as a matter of fact, is Boko Haram still around, did we do anything against them, and did we ever get the girls back? Uh, I think you see my point.

Additional testimony to my skepticism comes from the actions of the venerable “newspaper of record,” the New York Times. As reported by The Daily Caller, “When Islamic terrorists expressly tell their victims why they’re being attacked, our mainstream media will do anything to cover it up. They’ll change the subject, they’ll blame the victims… they’ll even stealth-edit their own copy.”

“Here’s the latest example of the New York Times censoring itself to avoid offending Muslims after an act of Islamic terror. This morning, BenK at Ace of Spades quoted a New York Times story by Liz Alderman titled “Survivors Retrace a Scene of Horror at Charlie Hebdo.” Take note of these two paragraphs from that story:

“Sigolène Vinson, a freelancer who had decided to come in that morning to take part in the meeting, thought she would be killed when one of the men approached her. Instead, she told French news media, the man said, “I’m not going to kill you because you’re a woman, we don’t kill women, but you must convert to Islam, read the Quran and cover yourself,” she recalled.”

However, as they say in football — “upon further review, the call on the field is reversed” – because this is what it now states in the Times:

“Sigolène Vinson, a freelance journalist who had come in that morning to take part in the meeting, said that when the shooting started, she thought she would be killed. Ms. Vinson said in an interview that she dropped to the floor and crawled down the hall to hide behind a partition, but one of the gunmen spotted her and grabbed her by the arm, pointing his gun at her head. Instead of pulling the trigger, though, he told her she would not be killed because she was a woman. “Don’t be afraid, calm down, I won’t kill you,” the gunman told her in a steady voice, with a calm look in his eyes, she recalled. “You are a woman. But think about what you’re doing. It’s not right.”

Well, as you can clearly see, anything about having to convert to Islam, read the Koran or cover herself was cut. It’s now so sanitized that, well, you might even empathize with these savages and somehow believe them to be human — “steady voice, calm in his eyes.”

Therefore, no, I don’t believe we’re turning a page in the fight against Islamic totalitarianism, Islamic terrorism, and jihadism. It was CNN’s Christiane Amanapour who referred to these animals as “activists.”

Unless this cultural jihadist apologist sentiment in the West changes, our policy will never change. We continue to invite folks on national media to hiss “islamophobia” as a deterrent to bring about self-censoring. Which to me is just the non-kinetic means to the same end the two Islamic terrorist brothers sought at Charlie Hebdo.

As the Daily Caller piece explains, “Why would you specifically take out the part about the Islamic terrorist proselytizing for Islam in the middle of the terrorist attack? Why delete this woman’s account of being threatened at gunpoint and being told to convert to Islam? That’s easy. Because you’re one of America’s moral, ethical, and intellectual betters, and you don’t want it to be true. Your reporter hastily left that inconvenient truth in her story by accident, so you airbrushed it out, without any acknowledgment, to preserve the narrative. You turned it into, “Hey, maybe these guys aren’t so bad after all. They didn’t kill the women, right? Let’s not be too hasty.”

For some very odd reason the progressive socialist intelligentsia prefers not to acknowledge this enemy. Heck, we can’t even get our Attorney General Eric Holder to make a definitive statement. Again. from The Daily Caller, “In two separate instances Sunday morning, Attorney General Eric Holder refused to follow the lead of France and declare that the U.S. is at war with radical Islam in the aftermath of the brutal attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices on Wednesday. Instead, Holder, who was pressed by both NBC’s Chuck Todd and ABC’s George Stephanopolous with the same exact question, said that the U.S is at war with “terrorists” who “corrupt the Islamic faith” or use a “corrupted version of Islam.”

“The French Prime Minister declared that France is at war with radical Islam. Would you say the United States is at war with radical Islam?” Todd asked Holder. “I would say that we are at war with terrorists who commit these heinous acts and who use Islam, they use a corrupted version of Islam, to justify their actions,” Holder told Todd on “Meet The Press.” “We are bound and determined to hold them accountable, to find them wherever they are.”

So why all of this equivocating? Why does the Obama administration see this as some law enforcement action? Heck, they don’t even want to detain those we’ve taken off the battlefield as they continue to secretly release GITMO Islamic terrorists. And don’t tell me they’re “low risk” — that was how the French classified the now dead perpetrators from last week.

Perhaps Eric Holder should spend more time going after Islamic terrorists and defining them as such, instead of pursuing General David Petraeus — who by the way spent a good deal of his life fighting against Islamic terrorists.

Rallies and hashtag campaigns are the typical response — but yield no results. This enemy only respects and regards strength and might. And as long as we in the West refuse to get into the ring and smack them right in the mouth, they perceive our weakness, and continue to attack. Again, I remind you of Alexander the Great’s famed quote: “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

What do you think Islamic terrorists and jihadists see in our “leaders” — sheep or lions?

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Vote for 'Absurdity of the Year'

Vote for the “Absurdity of the Year!” by Michele Hickford, Editor-in-Chief at the Allen B. West Website

Meet Michele Hickford

Yes, folks there were an awful lot of absurd headlines in 2014. We can’t tell you how many times during last year we shook our heads and said “You just can’t make this stuff up.”

To be honest, it was hard to narrow the list to just these sixteen, and unfortunately you can only vote for one.

Check out the headlines below to refresh your memory. Then click here to vote!

We’ll be announcing the dubious winner on December 31st, just in time for you to say good riddance to 2014 and hope for a little less absurdity in 2015 — but we’re not betting on that. Vote now!

Scroll down to see our nominations for “Absurdity of the Year.”

1. Feds paid $182,129,786 to house illegals for 4 months
2. Army LTC may be forced to retire for preventing photos of lesbian couple kissing
3. Michael Brown’s mom tried to take her son’s case to the UN Committee on Torture
4. Iran executed a woman for killing her rapist
5. Your tax dollars funded Swedish massages for rabbits (which were killed afterwards)
6. Animal rights group sought “personhood” for chimpanzees
7. Openly gay Houston mayor demanded pastors turn over their sermons
8. Convicted cop killer gives college commencement speech
9. John Kerry: the Bible commands us to fight climate change, particularly in Muslim countries
10. Debbie Wasserman Schultz equates conservative policies to domestic violence
11. Nancy Pelosi says Hamas is a humanitarian organization
12. Kanye West says celebrities are treated like blacks in the 60's
13. Eric Holder’s Department of Justice investigates a parade float
14. Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl could be eligible for $350,000 in back pay, tax free
15. Military troops are getting pink slips while in combat
16. Gwyneth Paltrow compares Twitter to war

Click here to vote now!

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Death penalty off the table for black attackers

Blatant racial hypocrisy: Death penalty off the table for black attackers charged in murder of white officer from the files of Colonel Allen B. West


The nation is walking on eggshells and the governor of Missouri has declared a state of emergency as we await the ruling from a Grand Jury hearing regarding the shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson.

It seems that the premise of our judicial system and individual rights of “innocent until proven guilty” has no standing in this case. And if the evidence is proven to support charges not being brought against Officer Wilson, why is it that we must fear riots? Recent pictures of the city of Ferguson make it look like folks are preparing for a hurricane.

However, in the midst of all this, there’s another interesting case, which clearly demonstrates the hypocrisy surrounding Ferguson.

As reported by Fox News “U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has taken the death penalty off the table for four people charged in the gang-related slaying of a reserve Virginia police officer. Federal prosecutors said Friday that the four co-defendants will instead face the possibility of life in prison for their alleged role in the killing of Capt. Kevin Quick.”

“The 45-year-old Quick of Waynesboro was reported missing Feb. 1. His body was found several days later in Goochland County west of Richmond. The Daily Progress reports that authorities say the three siblings and another man charged all belong to the Bloods gang set 99 Goon Syndikate.

The four charged in May are Daniel Lamont Mathis, Shantai Monique Shelton, Mersadies Lachalle Shelton and Travis Leon Bell, also known as Kweli Uhuru.”

Yes, the Virginia reserve officer is white and the four assailants are black. I guess you haven’t heard about this story — hmm, wonder why? Could it there’s a double standard in America? Is it acceptable to gun down our law enforcement officers? Perhaps the family of Capt. Quick should go to the U.N. Committee on Torture and state their case.

And who is the “white” version of Al Sharpton to go out and rabble rouse the populace and incite them to riot? Will Attorney General Eric Holder visit with Capt. Quick’s family and how many White House officials attended the funeral of Capt. Quick?

Now of course, the liberal progressive left and their black compatriots will go apoplectic over these – because it’s embarrassing and reveals a prevailing truth. Why did Eric Holder interject himself in such a manner in the Virginia case? As reported by the Daily Progress,

“I know the attorney general takes these cases very seriously,” said Timothy J. Heaphy, who is prosecuting the case against siblings Daniel Mathis and Shantai and Mersadies Shelton, as well as Kweli Uhuru.

“Heaphy did not say whether he agreed with the decision or whether authorities have identified who fired the shot that killed Quick, 45, a new father who was last seen leaving his mother’s home in Afton, Va on Jan. 31.

He sent a text message to his girlfriend at 10:14 p.m. saying he was on his way to visit her and their infant daughter in Albemarle County, and another at 10:49 asking if she needed anything. That was the last anyone heard from Quick. His remains were discovered six days later in rural Goochland County.”

“The night Quick vanished, Mathis used Quick’s DuPont Community Credit Union card to withdraw $203 at an ATM in Fork Union, according to a search warrant initially sealed in federal court. By 3 a.m., when the siblings picked up a friend in Bumpass driving Quick’s silver Toyota 4Runner, the 20-year veteran of the Waynesboro reserve force was gone, the records state.

Surveillance records and witness interviews detailed in the warrant place the defendants with Quick’s debit card at banks in Charlottesville and Manassas in the following days. On Feb. 2, Mathis and Mersadies Shelton participated in a failed robbery in which one person was shot and another pistol whipped, the warrant states.”

So, where are the protests and riots? Where is the outrage over the senseless shooting of this reserve officer possibly related to a gang initiation?

Compare this to the reaction of the leftist media and the rabble rousers in Ferguson. Do these four savages deserve the death penalty? I think yes, for whatever reason they took the life of an innocent man, a law enforcement officer. And with such disregard that they used his credit and debit cards for their own pleasures as they drove around in his vehicle. I just have to ask, were his hands up?

Capt. Quick was last seen leaving his mother’s home on the way to his girlfriend and their newborn. He was not last seen assaulting a store owner and taking products. Yet, we know nothing of 45-year-old Capt. Kevin Quick.

Apparently, Quick’s crime was being a white man in America and not considered a victim — just someone who got what he deserved at the hands of society’s victims, young black men, gang members who have been badly treated and denied social justice. Are these four black assailants racists?

I hear there’s a bounty on the head of Ferguson officer Darren Wilson. What would happen if someone did the same against the four who “allegedly” shot Capt. Quick?

And does anyone truly wonder why race relations in America are in such poor shape? Here we have a black president, black attorney general, a black homeland security secretary, black national security advisor, and blacks are still ranting about no justice? So what justice was there for Capt. Kevin Quick? Well, it seems that’s just another example of the redefinition of America.

Call me Uncle Tom, Sellout, Oreo, or whatever you wish — y’all know this is wrong, and if you start any rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, then go riot for Virginia Captain Kevin Quick, and tell Eric Holder to reverse his decision. Of course you won’t, and that says it all.

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