Asset Forefeiture vs Jailtime

This is something I wrote for facebook about the controversy over the death of US Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi. Copy and paste for archival.

America is strange when it comes to casualties. You can't run a global empire without losing a few people, the British lost several every day back when they ruled the world.

I understand losing Ambassadors is a big deal, and this one was a senior member of the shadowy intelligence world, but you just gotta take your losses and move on.

British Ambassadors were a target of the IRA for a while, they potted the Dutch ambassador in 1976, and the Irish one in 1979. When it became clear that the Brits didn't care, the IRA switched emphasis to aristocrats, bombing Mountbatten's boat later on in 1979, but again the British didn't care. Not even blowing up the Tory party conference made any difference.

It was only in the 90s that IRA switched targets to destroying stuff, for instance the Financial District of London, with lots of telephone warnings to minimise casualties. That's the only way to get through to people, destroy their stuff, they care way more about their stuff than they do about themselves.

Some people may be skeptical about the last point, but its worth noting that no amount of jail time could break up the Italian Mafia in the United States, it was only when the RICO statutes of c. 1970 introduced civil asset forefeiture that the Mob decided to legitimise itself, somewhat.

Also it was only when the United States began to make a move on the property and lands of the Mormon church in Utah, seizing them in accordance with the 1887 Edmunds-Tucker Act, that the Church banned polygamy (the 1890 Manifesto).

People get romantic when they think of jailtime, they get pragmatic when they think of losing their houses and cars. Its better to go for the stuff.

As a footnote, longer jail sentences are sometimes unsuccessful in preventing crime, as Rockefeller found out after introducing incredibly draconian minimum sentences for various drug crimes while Governor of New York (the 1973 Rockefeller Drug Laws). Drug crime just grew and grew, and the jails filled up.