Dear Editor,
I admit to writing this with some trepidation and the proverbial shaking hands. I read in this newspaper some weeks ago and now confirmed yesterday about the “Asset Seizure Squad” and, if what I read is accurate, it is the scariest thing since the Nazis looted Europe. As I read the article yesterday, it would appear on its face that the Public Prosecutor can, with neither legal probable cause as determined by a judicial review nor any sort of due process, show up at your door, seize your house and belongings and then say “Prove to us (not the courts) just US that this stuff is really yours and that you bought it all with money that we approve of.”
And so would begin the chase. First you get a lawyer with a big retainer and a US $400 per hour rate. Then you start the dance. Because, according to the paper, this is not a judicial procedure and because, ostensibly you are merely a suspect because someone didn’t like your looks yet have been charged with no crime nor have any case to answer, who is the legal authority that says after you have been bankrupted with legal fees, “Ok... we believe you,... here is your house and car back?”
I am a serious law and order guy. I am all for convicting criminals and stripping them of their ill-gotten gains and hanging them up by their toes in the public square. I think the level of “quality of life” crime on this island is out of control and the mini criminals that get off with suspended sentences all the time should all be doing hard time. But having said that, turning the prosecutor’s office into what effectively now becomes a third world gestapo-esque arm of government that can come to your house in the middle of the night with no warrant issued after review by a judge and based on some rules ( not laws ) that are arbitrary and have neither been debated nor approved by the legislature, kick down your door and confiscate your personal property, is insane. In the real world, how hard would it be to do this all in a civilized fashion?
You think Citizen X is a criminal engaged in such activity that will warrant asset forfeiture? Great. Take your Proof ,... not your guesses, innuendos, here say, rumour and gossip.... but your hard Proof and stand in front of a court with real Judges and next to the guy whose stuff you are trying to grab and make your case. Give him a chance to defend himself without having to go thru bankruptcy to do it. Convince the judge that will hold you to an honest legal standard and get a legal court order to grab the stuff. That is what civilized societies do. In the name of all that is moral and right, don’t let those that describe St. Maarten as a “Banana Republic” be proven correct. Be tough on crime but be honest and fair in the way you do it.
Steven Johnson
