The best historical explanation offered for the origins of political systems is found in ancient days of merchants traveling, in caravans, from one marketplace to another. These traders would be pursued by looters who would forcibly take some of the goods and money possessed by the merchants. The looters would never completely despoil the businessmen, lest they discourage such caravan practices altogether. To make the system more predictable – and less troublesome for the looters – the caravans would be required to pass through established checkpoints and pay a fee, doubtless rationalized as a way for the merchants to enjoy the “protection” offered by the looters.
The practice is still with us, in the form of “asset forfeitures” by various police agencies. Any motorist driving from one state to another – such as for a vacation, or a weekend of gambling in Las Vegas – might be stopped by state or local police. If a search of the car revealed a few thousand dollars in cash, the police-officers might simply take it, without any justification based on the motorist’s activities. The police officers’ “suspicion” that the money might be associated with drug trafficking suffices to rationalize the act of legalized theft. Efforts by the plundered victims to get the return of their money rarely succeed.
The excuses offered by state officials for such practices carry no more moral weight than do the arguments advanced by playground bullies who, after forcibly taking the property of a younger student, respond: “can you prove that it’s yours?” Whether one is dealing with a school-yard bully, or the uniformed looter who engages in “asset forfeiture” on behalf of the state, the rationale for the taking is totally irrelevant. The suspicion that such money might have resulted from acts of embezzlement, bank robberies, or thefts from estate sales, will work just as well. It is enough that the victim has a sizeable amount of money in his possession, and that the armed force of the state’s looters will be sufficient to take it from him!
1:03 pm on January 22, 2015
