A. Barton Hinkle on How the Government Steals from Citizens

“Government,” as
Barney Frank and other progressives are fond of saying, “is just
another word for things we choose to do together.” Like rob people
blind. Sometimes the together-doing is highway robbery in the most
literal sense — as when police departments seize cash from
motorists who are never even charged with a crime. The euphemism
for that is civil asset forfeiture, and it’s gotten so out of hand
even hang-’em-high, law-and-order conservatives say it needs to
stop.

But sometimes, writes A. Barton Hinkle, the robbery is committed
not on the highways but for the sake of them — especially here in
Virginia. Just ask James and Janet Ramsey, who live near Oceana
Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach. Five years ago, the Virginia
Department of Transportation took a chunk of their property through
a controversial process known as quick take.

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