The LSU Police Department, as real deal police, can take everything you have.
Actually, that’s not totally true. Any law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over you can take your belongings — not just LSUPD and not just if you’ve committed a crime.
Let’s look at a brief example. Police can exercise what’s called criminal asset forfeiture. That’s where the cops come in your apartment or car and catch you smoking marijuana. You get arrested, you lose the pot and pipe.
I have absolutely no problem with this at all. It’s all justified.
However, there’s also civil asset forfeiture, and that’s where things get sticky. Let’s say you get caught with a joint in your car. Well, it’s perfectly reasonable to take your supplies, because taking devices used in crimes — guns, knives, etc. — can be part of keeping us safe.
Let’s say, however, that you got caught, and the officer decided he wanted your car, too. Yep, he can have it. Welcome to civil asset forfeiture. To make things more interesting, you actually don’t have to be convicted of the crime for the police to take your car, house and personal belongings. A lower level of proof is required for civil asset forfeiture than for a crime where you might end up in jail.
In our example, the officer could say you used the money from selling pot to buy the car. He may have so little evidence he cannot possibly convict you for the crime, but as long as they can say it was likely the car was purchased with drug money, they get it.
Again, you lose the car, which was allegedly purchased using funds from a crime of which you were found innocent. In case you think something like this just doesn’t happen here on American soil, you don’t know how wrong you are.
In fact — and here’s why this happens so often — many states like Louisiana allow up to 80   percent of the money made from the sale of forfeited goods to go to the police.
Do you see the problem? We call this a huge conflict of interest.
It’s the same reason why I can’t take out fire insurance on your house. It’s a conflict of interest because it gives me a huge incentive to have a surprise bonfire on your back porch.
So, if you told a child, “I’ll give you $10 and a cup of ice cream every time you find a spelling mistake,” how many mistakes do you think he’ll see? Well, it turns out it’s usually a whole lot more than are actually there.
A recent study done by criminologist John Worrall, after polling 770 police managers and executives, showed 40 percent of police departments admitted civil asset forfeiture was “necessary as a budget supplement.”
This means, my friends, nearly half of police managers admitted they need to take civil assets to pad the budget — new cars, equipment or sometimes just to keep a good man on payroll.
The problem is far beyond the scope of one article, but it will have to suffice to say there are officers out there looking for quick cash, just like the rest of us, and it essentially amounts to legalized theft.
As a final note, I would like to say I have a world of respect for officers and their families. I have several close, personal friends I’ve grown to know and love over the years who are dedicated officers, and I couldn’t be more proud of the work they do. However, what’s right is right, and taking the property of people found innocent in court is not.
As Voltaire, the 18th century French satirist, philosopher and writer once said, “It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”
This is a serious 10 to 30 years, guys. Can I get some backup?
Devin Graham is a 21-year-old business management senior from Prairieville. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_dgraham.
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Contact Devin Graham at [email protected]