by Doug Casey

The federal government is now controlled by actual Jacobins. They’re inclined to engage in lawfare against citizens—especially those who don’t share their views.

What’s in it for them? When they perform a civil asset forfeiture, a certain percentage goes to the agency that does it.

That money can buy cop toys and training to pad their resumes. That gives them a personal incentive to do things that are, in fact, criminal.

If you use a safety deposit box, lose it. You can be locked out of it at any time and as this shows the government can walk in and steal your stuff.

International Man: Recently, the FBI raided 700 safe deposit boxes in Beverly Hills.

They opened and searched through the content of every single box, regardless of whether there was any probable cause that individual box owners had committed any crime.

The FBI then attempted to confiscate anything worth more than $5,000 through civil asset forfeiture proceedings. Again, this was regardless of whether there was any evidence of wrongdoing by the individual box owners.

What do you make of this story?

Doug Casey: This is another of many indications that the FBI is totally corrupt and out of control. There’s no indication the agent-in-charge was even reprimanded, much less fired. It’s just one agency, but the fifteen other Praetorian agencies are no better.

An even bigger problem is that the rule of law itself is dead. At this point, almost any federal agency can do whatever they want. If you don’t like it and want to fight them, it’s going to cost a ton of legal fees.

The federal government is now controlled by actual Jacobins. They’re inclined to engage in lawfare against citizens—especially those who don’t share their views.

What’s in it for them? When they perform a civil asset forfeiture, a certain percentage goes to the agency that does it.

That money can buy cop toys and training to pad their resumes. That gives them a personal incentive to do things that are, in fact, criminal. It’s a very serious matter. It’s only going to get worse when CBDCs are initiated—they’ll make civil asset forfeitures, fines, and asset freezes much easier when all your money is visible and available at the central bank. It’s one more reason to own gold—but not store it in a US safe deposit box.

International Man: A federal appeals court recently found that the FBI violated the Fourth Amendment with their actions.

While this is good news, the individual box owners invested considerable time and money in uncertain legal actions to get their property returned to them. It seems there will be no consequences for the FBI agents who flagrantly violated the individual box owners’ Constitutional rights.

It sends the message that the government can engage in gross violation of rights with near impunity. The only consequence is that the courts might reverse their actions years later. No government agents will be punished for violating the law. Such a standard does not apply to regular citizens, of course.

What’s your take?

Doug Casey: Individual agents are a protected class. It’s extremely hard and very expensive to prosecute them as individuals. Remember that the first loyalty of agents is to each other, and the second is to their employer. The public, who they’re supposed to “protect and serve,” is in third place.

Federal law enforcement agencies have become much more aggressive over the years and increasingly recruit and retain the kind of people who fit in that culture. They have every incentive to continue and no incentive to change course.

What about the Constitution? Isn’t it supposed to protect us? Yes, in theory. But it’s simultaneously a dead letter and a “living document” that can be altered to suit. It’s so selectively enforced and has been so grotesquely reinterpreted that it basically doesn’t mean anything anymore. There’s an occasional victory, but the trend has been downhill for many years. The next major crisis will allow lots of emergency measures to further subvert it. The type of people who are attracted to the US government never let a good crisis go to waste.

International Man: Civil asset forfeiture lets the government seize your property under the flimsiest pretexts.

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