Law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did last year

It would be more interesting to see asset forfeiture compared to armed robbery, since that is essentially what happens when police, with a gun on their hip and the right to use it, take your assets without legal judgement.

"Still, boil down all the numbers and caveats above and you arrive at a simple fact: In the United States, in 2014, more cash and property transferred hands via civil asset forfeiture than via burglary. The total value of asset forfeitures was more than one-third of the total value of property stolen by criminals in 2014."

Ah, these are some really revolutionary statistics. People who were not accused of any crime were robbed by the police for larger quantities of money than actually taken from homes forcefully by the traditional image of "criminals". Via this information we can say with confidence that the law enforcement agencies are the larger criminals when it comes to direct monetary abduction from the public. This leaves us in a shitty position, because we can no longer rely on law enforcement to provide support for our society.

We know with confidence that American LEOs will steal, spy on, beat, dehumanize, ignore, and murder the public without righteous comeuppance from the political or legal systems. To be clear, this kind of endemic bad behavior is what reliably drives people to vigilanteeism and anti-police violence. Barring that, I think a rational response to law enforcement abuses is in order.

There's a few prongs to this strategy, the most important of which is political pressure, meaning organizing direct monetary bribery of politicians via campaign donations near the time of elections; loudly donating large sums of money to radical police reformists running for public office will go a long way in solving the problem, as this signals to other politicians, the police and the public that people are serious about solving the problem of villainous law enforcement. From here, things get real: I suggest a boycott of assisting law enforcement with information technology projects in an attempt to handicap their efficiency, making them realize that the public will resist them if they continue bad behavior. I also suggest shaming and social exclusion of people working in or associated with law enforcement-- I know this won't go far, but it's worth a shot. At least it's nonviolent.

Is there any reason, aside from the $1.7 billion from Bernie Madoff, as to why the amount seized has risen so much in the last 10 years?

Was there some case that made it much easier for law enforcement to seize assets this way?

Recent discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10591250

> Here's an interesting factoid about contemporary policing

Pedantic correction: Properly speaking, a "factoid" is something which is NOT a fact fact, but resembles one. Similarly to how an android is not a man.

I realize people are starting to use it like "small fact", but, uh, get off my lawn.

Taxes and more debt are not always popular.

Growing government has figured out how to turn the courthouse and police station into profit centers with a lot less blowback than raising taxes and going deeper into the hole with bonds.