Town Where U.S. Marshal Smashed Citizen's Camera Rakes in Millions from Federal Forfeiture Rules

South Gate seizes more under federal program than San Francisco.
Scott Shackford
Reason
Apr. 24, 2015

Brian Doherty took note yesterday of an incident, caught on citizen video, of a U.S. marshal in South Gate, California, smashing the cell phone camera of another citizen who had been filming some police activity in her neighborhood.

Wondering why a U.S. marshal was part of this police sweep in the first place? Neighbors told ABC 7 there was a police sweep targeting members of the Mongol bike gang in South Gate. The U.S. Marshals recently spent six weeks working with law enforcement agencies across the country to track down arrest scores of wanted fugitives. That project ended early in April, but marshals regularly partner with police in anti-gang activities.

Still, there's more. Partnering with federal law enforcement allows South Gate's police to turn to the Department of Justice's Equitable Sharing Program for assistance in seizing and keeping assets from these raids. And South Gate does so--a lot.

A new report put out by the Drug Policy Alliance earlier this week highlighted a handful of small municipalities in Southern California who draw in asset forfeiture dollars seemingly far out of proportion to their size. South Gate is one of those cities. South Gate, situated just south of Los Angeles, has a population of less than 100,000 people, but has collected more than $7.6 million in revenue using the federal Equitable Sharing Fund between 2006 and 2013. They're ranked sixth in the state in per capita forfeiture revenue. They've received more seized funds through the federal forfeiture system during that timeframe than San Francisco (population: 800,000).

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