You say it's not about race, but let me point you to the story of a Texas freelance racist who was supported by many racist cops and citizens for a long time. I have lived in Texas all my life, and he is a household name among people who care about civil rights.
I don't mention this to say civil forfeiture is necessarily racist, as much as to point out that it is a tool entirely too attractive to them. And they are using it as much as they can, here.
i bet america has racism issues, but civil forfeiture is completely different issue. and trying to bring up racism problem into it makes it only more complicated - suddenly you get "racist cops" who probably, after reading this article will not think about "wow, forfeiture rules are stupid", but rather "huh, so they caught black guy, he probably was doing narcotics" or similar bs.
I don't mention this to say civil forfeiture is necessarily racist, as much as to point out that it is a tool entirely too attractive to them. And they are using it as much as they can, here.
http://justicedenied.org/issue/issue_27/coleman_convicted.ht...