Armed robbery gang

[supergee]

City Attorneys train local cops to use "wish lists" for civil forfeiture

Thanx to andrewducker

Comments

[johnpalmer]

I wonder why libertarian organizations aren't crying about this from the rooftops. I mean, if taxation if theft, then this is much, much worse, right?

(This might be a bit snarkier than intended - but I've noticed that there's a lot of "why haven't you called out X?" in modern politics. And there's plenty of blame to go around for everyone here. But I'm more likely to hear a libertarian push for lowering tax rates or reducing regulations on business than on legalized armed theft.)

[supergee]

Radley Balko is an excellent example of a libertarian who is concerned about police abuses, in his column and his book, The Rise of the Warrior Cop.

[johnpalmer]

You're right. A damn good example.

[supergee]

There is also a blog, Cop Block, which has been called out as a libertarian front by at least one progressive blogger.

[johnpalmer]

"Front"? What, like we can't ally with libertarians who are willing to go to the wall over abuses of power?

I won't lie, I don't like most of what I've seen about libertarians (but as with any movement, the most obnoxious people are the noisiest). But if they'll decry excessive use of force, legalized theft, excessive criminal sanctions, etc., there's no reason we can't work together on those things we agree on. I disagree with a lot of libertarians, but I'm not afraid of libertarian cooties!

[supergee]

Good for you. As a recovering libertarian, I still have a lot of agreements with my former allies.