LETTERS: How the Legislature gutted the asset forfeiture bill

I want to thank the Review-Journal for publishing the editorial on asset forfeiture ("Forfeiture abuse," July 2 R-J). I looked up state Senate Bill 138, and what I found was very interesting, to say the least.

In March, Sen. Greg Brower, R-Reno, opened testimony on SB138, which as introduced would have greatly limited the practice. Speaking in favor were Sen. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, and representatives from the Institute for Justice, the ACLU, NPRI and others. They made the same points the R-J made in the July 2 editorial and in previous editorials. After the testimony, but before Sen. Brower opened the meeting to the opposition, there was an "un-oh" moment. Regarding the well-publicized asset forfeiture incidents among law enforcement and motorists here in Nevada, Sen. Brower said they were an "anomaly" and did not represent the reality of Nevada's civil forfeiture law.

From there, it was all downhill. The most articulate and forceful speaker against SB138 was Keith Munro, the deputy district attorney for Washoe County. He said he searched thoroughly and could not find a single challenge to the existing law at the Nevada Supreme Court or in federal court. He went on to state the bill was "challenging the fundamental fairness of the existing process that is already fair. ... The statutory structure is sound. You cannot legislate bad characters out of existence."

On April 14, Sen. Brower was quite pleased, saying, "We do have consensus on the reporting requirements that now comprise the entirety of the amended bill." The amended SB138 passed the Senate, 20-0. It passed the Assembly, 41-0.

I just thought readers would like to know how this bill got watered down.

Knight Allen

Las Vegas

Gay marriage dissent

Rich Lowry's defense of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' minority opinion on gay marriage makes as little sense as the opinion itself ("Dignity existed long before government," July 12 Review-Journal). We liberals are not in any disagreement with the concept that a person's dignity is something before, outside and in spite of anything a government can proclaim. That is simply not the issue, but Mr. Thomas appears to try to make it so.

Mr. Lowry almost had it right when he quoted part of Justice Thomas' opinion: "One's liberty, not to mention one's dignity, was something to be shielded from — not provided by — the State." Why else would the concept be forthrightly stated in our Declaration of Independence?

What Mr. Lowry apparently ignored was that we went to war with Britain over such independence. And he further ignores the fact that our judicial system, specifically the U.S. Supreme Court, is in fact in place to ensure that our government does nothing to ignore these rights for all our citizens, gays included. The issue is not that government gives dignity. It is simply that good government never ignores nor tramples on such dignity.

Richard L. Strickland

North Las Vegas

Flag symbolism

Kathy Espin's letter states that the Civil War is an important part of her heritage, that her ancestors fought for a way of life they believed in and were fighting to preserve that way of life for her ("Confederate flag," July 16 Review-Journal). That's the problem. Southerners still believe that their way of life back then was right. They have a stronger loyalty to their states than they have to the United States and its government.

I lived in the South when I was young (not by choice), and I had a teacher who tried to tell us that the Civil War was not about slavery, but economics. The trouble is that after the invention of the cotton gin, the economy of the South was slaves.

The post-World War II German generation was ashamed when it found out what Germany had done, and many even went to Israel to work on a kibbutz to atone for the deeds of their parents and grandparents. The South had to be dragged kicking and screaming into desegregation, and it had to be forced to recognize blacks as human beings. The South showed no shame and is still glorifying its way of life through devotion to the Confederate flag, a symbol of hatred and white supremacy.

I lived in Europe during World War II, and I equate the Confederate flag with the Nazi swastika.

Nadia Romeo

Las Vegas