A new report released this week found what any person of color familiar with the workings of the criminal justice system probably could have guessed: that cops who seized the property of suspects, even those who aren’t convicted, more often than not targeted Black and low-income communities. The survey, partially the result of a class action lawsuit, focused on Philadelphia respondents who were victims of this practice, which is known as civil forfeiture. Two thirds of the respondents were Black, “63% earned less than $50,000 annually and 18% were unemployed,” researchers wrote in the report from the public interest law firm Institute for Justice. Researchers also found that “compared to Philadelphians overall, respondents were more often minority and lower income” and that “they also had less education and higher rates of unemployment.”
Such was the case for Nassir Geiger: He happened to be on the scene greeting a friend who was then caught in the midst of a drug possession arrest at a McDonald’s in northeast Philadelphia. Andrew Wimer, director of media relations for the Institute for Justice, highlighted Geiger's case in a Forbes article about the devastating effects of civil forfeiture in Black and low-income communities. Geiger was pulled over after talking to his friend, and although police found no drugs in his car, they used empty Ziplock bags to justify seizing his car and $580, Wimer wrote.
“The police gave Nassir a receipt for only $465 rather than the full amount taken and no receipt for his car,” Wimer explained. “Nassir’s court-appointed attorney recommended that he take a plea deal that would result in a clear record if he paid a $200 fine and completed 20 hours of community service.
“This plea deal didn’t include the government taking his car or cash, so Nassir thought he would get both back. He was wrong.”
Wimer defined what happened to Geiger as civil forfeiture, “a process already prone to abuse,” but that Wimer said Philadelphia property owners were at an “even greater disadvantage” than usual. "Property owners were summoned to Courtroom 478 at City Hall, but there was no judge in the room,” Wimer wrote. “The show was run by prosecutors, the same people who filed the forfeiture actions and who stood to benefit financially from successful forfeitures."
Geiger attended the courtroom, where he was required to fill out paperwork without a court-appointed attorney, then told to come back in six weeks for another hearing, Wimer wrote. "At that second hearing, prosecutors told Nassir he could get his car back only if he paid the $1,800 in storage fees that had been piling up," the spokesman said. "Without his car, Nassir’s 10-minute car commute turned into a 45-minute ordeal requiring two buses." The case, part of a class action lawsuit, helped draw so much attention to the issue of predatory forfeitures that it led to reform measures hammered out as part of a settlement to the lawsuit, Wimer said. The recently released report, entitled Frustrating, Corrupt, Unfair: Civil Forfeiture in the Words of Its Victims, was another positive effect of the settlement and resulting consent decree that rendered Philadelphia’s civil forfeiture machine “defunct.” Researchers wrote in the report: “From 2012 until it was dismantled in 2018, Philadelphia’s civil forfeiture program seized property from more than 30,000 people.”
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They added: “Civil forfeiture continues to ensnare thousands of innocent people across the country each year. This is because most states have civil forfeiture laws that make it easy and profitable for police and prosecutors to seize and forfeit people’s property.”
A complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas seeks to take $165,620 found in a marijuana van transporting the money to a credit union in Colorado, NPR in Kansas City reported. The money was produced by legally run Kansas City medical marijuana dispensaries, but the cash was being taken through Kansas, where medical marijuana is not legal, the radio nonprofit reported. “I have never seen a U.S. Attorney act against what is purportedly legal marijuana,” said attorney Lynn Ciani of the Numerica Credit Union in Spokane, Washington.
The scenario falls in line with what researchers found in their work in Philadelphia and in research nationwide. They wrote in their report:
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RELATED: DOJ announces plans for civil asset forfeiture against citizens who haven't even been charged
RELATED: This loophole allows Missouri's civil forfeiture money to be funneled away from education to police
RELATED: Tennessee law enforcement used over $100,000 of civil forfeiture money on catering
Such was the case for Nassir Geiger: He happened to be on the scene greeting a friend who was then caught in the midst of a drug possession arrest at a McDonald’s in northeast Philadelphia. Andrew Wimer, director of media relations for the Institute for Justice, highlighted Geiger's case in a Forbes article about the devastating effects of civil forfeiture in Black and low-income communities. Geiger was pulled over after talking to his friend, and although police found no drugs in his car, they used empty Ziplock bags to justify seizing his car and $580, Wimer wrote.
“The police gave Nassir a receipt for only $465 rather than the full amount taken and no receipt for his car,” Wimer explained. “Nassir’s court-appointed attorney recommended that he take a plea deal that would result in a clear record if he paid a $200 fine and completed 20 hours of community service.
“This plea deal didn’t include the government taking his car or cash, so Nassir thought he would get both back. He was wrong.”
Wimer defined what happened to Geiger as civil forfeiture, “a process already prone to abuse,” but that Wimer said Philadelphia property owners were at an “even greater disadvantage” than usual. "Property owners were summoned to Courtroom 478 at City Hall, but there was no judge in the room,” Wimer wrote. “The show was run by prosecutors, the same people who filed the forfeiture actions and who stood to benefit financially from successful forfeitures."
Geiger attended the courtroom, where he was required to fill out paperwork without a court-appointed attorney, then told to come back in six weeks for another hearing, Wimer wrote. "At that second hearing, prosecutors told Nassir he could get his car back only if he paid the $1,800 in storage fees that had been piling up," the spokesman said. "Without his car, Nassir’s 10-minute car commute turned into a 45-minute ordeal requiring two buses." The case, part of a class action lawsuit, helped draw so much attention to the issue of predatory forfeitures that it led to reform measures hammered out as part of a settlement to the lawsuit, Wimer said. The recently released report, entitled Frustrating, Corrupt, Unfair: Civil Forfeiture in the Words of Its Victims, was another positive effect of the settlement and resulting consent decree that rendered Philadelphia’s civil forfeiture machine “defunct.” Researchers wrote in the report: “From 2012 until it was dismantled in 2018, Philadelphia’s civil forfeiture program seized property from more than 30,000 people.”
YouTube Video
They added: “Civil forfeiture continues to ensnare thousands of innocent people across the country each year. This is because most states have civil forfeiture laws that make it easy and profitable for police and prosecutors to seize and forfeit people’s property.”
A complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas seeks to take $165,620 found in a marijuana van transporting the money to a credit union in Colorado, NPR in Kansas City reported. The money was produced by legally run Kansas City medical marijuana dispensaries, but the cash was being taken through Kansas, where medical marijuana is not legal, the radio nonprofit reported. “I have never seen a U.S. Attorney act against what is purportedly legal marijuana,” said attorney Lynn Ciani of the Numerica Credit Union in Spokane, Washington.
The scenario falls in line with what researchers found in their work in Philadelphia and in research nationwide. They wrote in their report:
YouTube Video
RELATED: DOJ announces plans for civil asset forfeiture against citizens who haven't even been charged
RELATED: This loophole allows Missouri's civil forfeiture money to be funneled away from education to police
RELATED: Tennessee law enforcement used over $100,000 of civil forfeiture money on catering