While Americans diligently scorn one another for even the smallest instances of racial and sexual prejudice, we are turning a blind eye to discrimination aimed toward all of us.
This discrimination manifests from the deterioration of our constitutional rights in the face of expanding government and corporate authority. Some of the clearest cases of such civil inequalities are captured by the infamous civil asset forfeiture laws.
These rules permit government organizations like the IRS to seize hard-earned funds solely upon suspicion of a crime. This is exactly what recently befell an innocent Iowa woman and owner of a family restaurant for nearly 40 years.
Without accusation, the Internal Revenue Service essentially stole $33,000 from her bank account because she had accumulated her savings via “suspicious” deposits of less than $10,000. There has been a nearly six fold increase in unjustified conf iscations by the IRS from 2005 to 2012 with the median seizure being a whopping $34,000.
However, it isn’t only the IRS that increasingly considers us guilty without any due diligence. The police are onboard with it as well.
There have been 62,000 cash seizures without warrants or indictments since 9/11, according to a September Washington Post report. Police agencies, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have robbed a total of more than 2.5 billion dollars from the American people in the name of fighting terrorism.
While innocent Americans are coldly targeted by so called “laws” intended to halt terrorist activity and drug markets, the real culprits are getting mere slaps on the wrist.
The mega bank Wachovia, now known as Wells Fargo, was exposed laundering billions of dollars for a Mexican drug cartel in 2009. Wachovia had also neglected to apply appropriate anti-laundering strictures for a massive $378 billion transfer from Mexico.
Despite a preponderance of criminal evidence, trials waited until the following year and no individuals were prosecuted. Wachovia was fined a minor sum that was less than two percent of its 2009 profit.
Without our fourth or fifth amendments, no longer are judges, juries and criminal convictions necessary to deprive us of our property or liberties. Even worse, these consequences of the fraudulent war on drugs and terror are just one aspect of systematic discrimination against the common citizenry.
The state is also hypocritically attacking the Second Amendment as it pushes endless violence in other countries and arms numerous agencies including the Department of Education and the U.S. Postal Service.
While legitimate demographic inequalities do exist, the largest conduits of oppression in human history are not racism, sexism or homophobia. It is the top-down disregard for populations by the ruling classes.
Americans must find their common ground and work to restore the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. If we don’t abandon the infighting sweeping our country and address these unspoken inequalities, we’re all going to lose.
edharo@indiana.edu
