[VIDEO EXCLUSIVE] John Oliver Explains How Civil Forfeiture Lets Cops Take Your Property

In our ongoing exclusive partnership with all television news programs, we’re excited to bring you this latest clip from ‘Last Week Tonight” in which John Oliver explains the legal concept of civil forfeiture. Basically, it means that police in the United States can confiscate any property of yours that they think might be related to a crime. They don’t have to prove anything. They don’t even have to charge you with anything. But if a cop in the US stops you for speeding and you have cash in your car, under civil forfeiture they can confiscate it, as happened to a man who had $20,000 he was carrying to purchase a car after being stopped for speeding.

Civil forfeiture puts an inordinate amount of power in the hands of police departments who, as one department stated in a hearing, see the funds as ‘pennies from heaven” that they can spend on ‘toys.”

If you’re ready for your morning cup of ‘Are you fucking kidding me???” watch the following clip.