From: leonf@perspicuity.net ("Leon")
To: fear-list@mapinc.org, fear-talk@mapinc.org
Cc: alan3122@msn.com
Subject: FEAR: A Tale of the Feds and the Frog
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 09:12:02 -0600


An oldie but goodie! This is a very unusual article for it is anti-forfeiture and is written by a government high-level executive! 
To read more of this article go to 

http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_takings&Number=313914

And it would not hurt to pass on a "thank you" to Ms Springer -- especially if you live in Arizona!

Leon
S. Leon Felkins, Exec. Dir. FEAR
Email: leon@fear.org


Nothing whatever but the constitutional law, the political structure, of these United States protects any American from arbitrary seizure of his property and his person, from the Gestapo and the Storm Troops, from the concentration camp, the torture chamber, the revolver at the back of his neck in a cellar. - Rose Wilder Lane


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

A Tale of the Feds and the Frog
August 1, 2001
By Carol Springer, Arizona State Treasurer

Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
- C. S. Lewis

In many countries of the world, developed and undeveloped, personal property rights are not secure. Kenya, until very recently, offered few real property ownership opportunities for its citizens. A recent movement to place ownership of farmlands into the hands of those who cultivate it is beginning to transform that nation. Hopefully it will instill diligence, perseverance and pride of ownership.

Historically, land in Russia has been used as a source of control and patronage, not as a tool for betterment of the people. However, Russia is now attempting, for the first time, to transform the right of private ownership granted by its constitution into a reality. Imagine the difficulties inherent in this task. For instance, financing mechanisms such as our standard thirty-year mortgage for home or farm ownership are nonexistent. How better to restrict ownership to the state or the privileged class than to require cash in full as payment?

In contrast, the concept of private property is so fundamental to Americans that it ranks with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as a basic right implicit with citizenship. Amendments IV, V and XIV of the U. S. Constitution protect property rights along with other rights enumerated by that document. Similarly, the Arizona Constitution assures certain rights including property. In the aggregate these rights are so ingrained that they are considered by most of us to have been granted by a transcendent power, thus placing them beyond retraction by the political institutions of man.

With these strong philosophical and constitutional supports, the property rights of law-abiding Americans should have been unassailable. In general, except for the occasional painful exercise of eminent domain for the greater public good relatively few Americans have lost sleep over actual or anticipated abuse of property rights.

Some of the many ways in which property rights are being eroded include:

* Asset forfeiture prior to conviction for a crime
* Zoning regulations
* Environmental/wetlands regulations
* Historic property confiscations
* Eminent domain takings (urban renewals, etc.)
* Conversion of land to National Parks, National Forests or Federal Monuments

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