Lily Tang Williams: My testimony video and script to support SB006 “Prohibit Forfeitures Without Criminal Conviction”

Via FB. Lily Tang Williams ran as a Libertarian for Colorado House District 44 in 2014 and serves as Colorado state director of Our America Initiative.

My testimony video and script to support SB006 “Prohibit Forfeitures Without Criminal Conviction”. I did not have time to go through my entire script. Please read it here. This bill failed. Shame on you, the elected officials who testified to kill this liberty bill in the name of “public safety”, “fighting the drug war” and “funding needs”.

“I am Lily Tang Williams from Parker, Colorado. I am here to represent Our America Initiative, Libertarian Party of Colorado and myself to support SB15-006 “Prohibit Forfeitures Without Criminal Conviction”.

I was born and grew up in The Peoples Republic of China. There the Communist Party of China confiscated private properties without due process. Citizens routinely lose their land, businesses, and homes. Even in the 50s, my grandmother’s sewing machine and steel pots were taken to support Mao’s Steel Production Campaign. If you resisted, you could be shot or arrested. I grew up without knowing or hearing about concepts of human rights and private property rights.

Even after China’s economical reforms, the police state mentality still dominates China. When I lived in Hong Kong in the late 90s and traveled to China for business, citizens’ there expressed fear of the police. Whenever police cars would show up, people would yell “Mafia coming, run”. The police seizing private properties without any excuses are typical. The legal system in China is based on “you are guilty until you prove yourself to be innocent”. How convenient for the police and bureaucrats!

About 10 years ago, my best friend from law school entered an investment contract with a city government in Anhui Province, west of Shanghai. He and his partners owned 56% of the business of building a local hospital while the city government owned 44%. My friend and his partners invested over $5 million of their own money. The local government not only did not come up with the cash they agreed to invest, but also used the excuse that my friends group did not raise enough funds to build the hospital and seized everything: the land, the unfinished hospital, the company registration papers, chops and all the important company documents. So my friends group could not even prove the legitimacy and existence of their company to sue the government in the courts. My friend and his partners lost everything, $5 million dollars in private property seized by the city government as well as wasting years of their time and effort.

I immigrated to America when I was about 24 years old because I lost faith and hope for China to become a society ruled by just laws. I loved reading Declaration of Independence and U.S Constitution, which it stated clearly, “all men are created equal”, and individual rights and properties are protected. However, I have become aware of too many civil forfeiture cases where private properties were seized without a criminal conviction. I have read about American citizens losing their homes, cars, bank accounts and cash, and thus the ability to defend themselves in the courts. The Federal “Equitable Sharing” program which provides financial incentives to law enforcement agencies to seize private properties without warrant or conviction is not constitutional and not just. People have to prove their innocence in a civil court to get their property back as if it were a civil case! This has been going on for too long and it really scares me.

What kind of country did I come here for? I chose to come to America because its Constitution would protect my rights and properties, because it is a society based on rule of law, not rule of man. I ask all of you who have been sworn into office to uphold U.S Constitution and Colorado Constitutions: do you really think the current laws and practice of civil forfeiture are constitutional? Is it moral to seize and keep innocent people’s properties without a conviction in a court of law? Is it “justice” to place the burden of proving innocence on the citizens’ shoulders? Is America I love becoming like China?

Please vote for your conscience, vote for what is right and just, vote for this bill. Thank you.