The practice includes DEA special agents or task force officers approaching individuals at airports and then asking for consent to search the individual’s belongings.
The DOJ’s move comes four years after Scripps News Tampa Investigative Reporter Kylie McGivern highlighted the practice of civil asset forfeiture at airports by the DEA.
Civil asset forfeiture allows federal agencies to seize cash and other property suspected of being involved in a crime, even if charges are never filed against the owner.
The Institute for Justice called the move a “pretty significant change.”
“It means that air travelers across the United States, at all domestic airports, will not be subjected to these ‘consensual encounter’ interrogations by DEA,” said Dan Alban, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice.
“Controversial” universally seems to mean “the worst sort of bullshit imaginable, but let’s be polite for some reason.”
This is theft.
The entire concept is theft. They just take shit… and go fuck yourself. I’m aware of the excuses and they don’t matter because they are plainly just excuses. Inanimate objects can’t be plaintiffs and even if they were they’d be presumed innocent.
Even the chosen name for this bullshit is an intolerable lie.