Get pulled over with a lot of cash? The cops might just decide to take it even if you’re not charged with any crime. Leaving aside raging due process concerns, law enforcement organizations get to keep a substantial portion of the property they seize in this way, which gives them an incentive to steal such assets when they think they can get away with it — which may or may not be the same thing as “when they think it’s actually evidence of illegality.”

I think we can also be safe saying that people with access to and experience with white-collar banking services are unlikely to use twenty large in cash to buy a car (e.g.), so the folks caught by seizure-hungry cops are going to tend to be poorly educated and from the lower strata of society — which makes them easier targets, since they’re correspondingly less likely to fight the seizures in court. Nice.