Police Misconduct And The Federal Government, Continued | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Jon Guze, who is the Director of Legal Studies for the John Locke Foundation.

    In the first newsletter I wrote for the John Locke Foundation, I welcomed Eric Holder's announcement that the Department of Justice — the country's top law enforcement agency — would be reigning in its out-of-control and abusive civil asset forfeiture program. Unfortunately, as George Leef reports at Forbes.com, the DOJ's abuse of asset forfeiture continues, and a North Carolina man has recently been its victim:


    At Reason.com, Scott Shackford reports another equally egregious example of asset forfeiture abuse by federal law enforcement:


    Sadly, the President's appointment of Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General suggests that this sort of abuse will continue. As Adam Bates pointed out at Cato.org at the time of the nomination:


    In view of all this, when the President announces the steps his administration is taking to help state and local jurisdictions deal with police misconduct ("We're going to be working systematically with every city and jurisdiction around the country"), and when the new Attorney General announces her agency's investigation of police misconduct in Baltimore ("We have seen from our work in jurisdictions across the country that communities that have gone through this process are experiencing improved policing practices and increased trust between the police and the community."), I don't know whether to laugh or cry.