On this day in DL History: Blevins Pulls a Sneaky Pete – June 21st 2016
On this day in 2016 El Som documented how Patti Blevins killed a bill that would have tried to stop the practice of civil forfeiture in Delaware. The cops, being a co-equal branch of government according to Schwartzkopf, prevailed but Blevins went on to lose her next election. So at least there is that.
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Welcome to a Very Special Primal Scream Edition of the Pre-Game Show. Time to cue my best Howard Beale/Howard Dean:
1. General Assembly Refusing to Stop Cops from Just Stealing Stuff.
This is on Patti Blevins and the Senate leadership. I don’t give a bleep what you or they think about Colin Bonini. We all know he’s unfit to be Governor (although, come to think of it, how much worse could he be than John Carney?). HowEVER, that’s a pathetic excuse to keep SB 222 buried in the Public Safety Committee. Blevins has pulled a ‘Schwartzkopf’ here by putting the bill in an inhospitable committee. Besides, the bill’s other two prime sponsors are D’s (Townsend and Baumbach). I mean, check out the sponsors on the bill. As bipartisan as it gets. There is only one reason why this bill has been buried: The cops who have been doing the stealing don’t want it. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Here is the bill’s synopsis:
Civil forfeiture laws represent one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today. Under civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets—often without so much as charging you with a crime. This Act protects individual liberty and property rights by standardizing forfeitures across all crimes, simplifying procedures, and addressing counterproductive incentives in the law that distort policing priorities. Importantly, this Act does not change the authority of law enforcement to seize property suspected of being associated with crime or limit in any way prosecutors’ ability to charge and prosecute suspected criminals. Moreover, it ensures that those individuals proven guilty of a crime do not keep the fruits of their crime. In doing so, it strikes the right balance between the individual property rights and public safety.
Committee Chair Bob Marshall must bring this bill up in committee. He seems to be reverting to Tom Sharp circa 1988, which is an especially bad role model. There appear to be enough votes to release it if Marshall and Sen. McBride vote for it, especially since Townsend and Lawson (!) are on the bill as co-sponsors. That’s 4 out of 6. It’s time to chip away at the police state that Delaware has become. As for John Carney, maybe he could exercise some leadership and come out in favor of this bill–except (a) he’s still not an official candidate and (b) you can bet that this empty suit is sure to be in mindless (redundant, I know) thrall to law enforcement. Failure to work this bill is a fucking disgrace.
