Question for OT lawyers

You are watching a TV show about "real cops" used for entertainment. I would take most of them with a grain of salt.

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So I'm watching cops. Looks to be a dated episode back to about ten years ago. Tampa pd is setting up a weed sting. Their uc's sell to a white guy and his girl friend. Looked like 4 grams for 30 bucks. Not a lot of weed or money. They told this guy immediately that they were seizing his car and that he would not be able to get it back. How legal is this? Seems pretty fricked up.

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Look up civil asset forfeiture. They don't even need to charge you with a crime to seize your property. They literally sue the property, then force the owner to prove the innocence of the property. It's the exact opposite of innocent until guilty. There was a town in Texas that perfected this technique down to a science.

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In the East Texas town of Tenaha, the district attorney oversaw aparticularly Dickensian operation: Local cops would stop out-of-town drivers on the flimsiest of pretexts to look for cash, DVD players, cell phones, anything of value. The DA would threaten drivers with criminal charges, even promising to have state authorities remove kids from parents unless they waived rights to the property.

A class-action lawsuit uncovered that the proceeds from this highway robbery—an estimated $3 million between 2006 and 2008—were paying for popcorn machines, donations to a local Baptist church and bonuses for law enforcement key to the operation. Meanwhile, the DA was handing out light sentences to those caught with drugs, or laundered money, in exchange for seizing their assets.

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LINK

Here's some food for thought- the laws about asset forfeiture haven't changed. There's literally nothing to keep your average Street beat cop from doing this to anyone.