Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
Do you know what Civil Asset Forfeiture is? It’s when police take money or property from people *suspected of* (but not found guilty of) committing crimes. They auction this property off or use it for police purposes (think: undercover police cars). It is nearly impossible to get the property back, and this is a clear violation of the 4th and 5th amendments.
While not comparatively widespread in our quiet beach town, we still had tons of police seizures to deal with, and oftentimes nobody would even be convicted of a crime– how is this right? It isn’t– but it’s so widespread that it’s just taken for granted as though it was “the way things are”. Confusion– to put it lightly– abounded for years as to how to deal with this property, and how to deal with the new victims that were created when innocent people were taken from.
Last City Council meeting, an item was on the agenda for police reforms. As I read through it, I could almost not believe what I was reading: It stripped out so much of the bad and 25-year-old antiquated city ordinances that the entire thing appeared gutted. Don’t take my word for it, scroll through it yourself, here: http://savenewport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Amending-Council-Policy-F-10-Civil-Asset-Forfeiture-and-Seizure.pdf
There is one thing that jumped out at me, though– it had this clause: “[…] any Forfeited Assets converted for Police Department use shall supplement, not supplant, existing departmental equipment and funds.” Excuse me? Did I just read that this law meant that the police had authorization to steal for profit? I got up on the dias and demanded to know what was happening– this simply wasn’t right. Will O’Neill stepped up to the plate and stated that it was a “federal law” which made that text mandatory. Skeptical as always, I followed up with him to find out what on earth he was talking about.
Sure enough, he produced the law. It says that all money collected through this process was to be given to the Police Department as what amounts to “bonus money”. What an awful spot to put our PD in.
However, back to the positive: The key phrase in the newly-amended city version states “The City of Newport Beach recognizes the taking of property due to alleged criminal wrongdoing is entitled to the same legal protection as the taking of a person into custody for alleged criminal wrongdoing.” — this means if you ain’t guilty or you ain’t even charged, then you get your stuff back, no legal hurdles and no questions asked.
It should be noted that Will O’Neill was the only councilmember in 25 years to put the kind of effort into this that it took to set things righ– well, as right as the federal government will allow. He deserves a hearty thank-you from every individual concerned with liberty, and from the Police Department for finally providing them council policies they need to operate within both the Constitution and our council policies.
I encourage you to send him a thank-you email to woneill@newportbeachca.gov — we not only need more actions like this, but we need to let our councilpeople know when they are doing the RIGHT thing, not just when they are doing things wrong! Send him an email!
