Rebel Ridge Is an Upcoming Action Movie About Civil Asset Forfeiture Abuse

The explosions may be fake, but the nightmare scenario is ripped from the headlines.

The outrageous practice of civil asset forfeiture—which allows police to seize property on the mere suspicion of a crime—is getting its moment in the spotlight in Rebel Ridge, an upcoming Netflix action movie starring Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson.

According to a synopsis, Terry Richmond (Pierre) is a former Marine who "grapples his way through a web of small-town corruption when an attempt to post bail for his cousin escalates into a violent standoff with the local police chief" (Johnson).

Check out the trailer:

 

Judging from all this, Rebel Ridge is a movie in the fine tradition of First Blood, Walking Tall, and Road House, where a determined man kicks a whole town's ass. (See also: Yojimbo, High Plains Drifter, and every Jack Reacher book.)

I can't speak to how realistic the notion of one guy single-handedly going to war with a county sheriff's department is, but the depiction of civil asset forfeiture, at least from the clips in the trailer, is unfortunately quite accurate.

Rebel Ridge's inciting incident occurs when sheriff's deputies detain Richmond and seize his cash. "We're going to hold on to this money," a goonish deputy tells him before letting him go.

That's not a screenwriter's hyperbolic depiction of small-town corruption. That's pretty much how it works. Under civil asset forfeiture laws, police can seize property they suspect is connected to illegal activity, like drug trafficking, even if the owner is never charged with a crime.

For example, in 2021, Nevada Highway Patrol officers seized $90,000 from a veteran, who said the cash was his life savings and that he didn't trust banks. The officers admitted there was nothing illegal about carrying large amounts of cash, but after a drug-sniffing dog alerted on the money the officers said it was probably drug proceeds and took it.

Reason recently published a five-part investigation by the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, into an annual highway interdiction program in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The investigation revealed police always treated large amounts of cash as suspicious and never missed an opportunity to seize it.

Law enforcement groups say civil forfeiture allows them to crack down on drug trafficking and organized crime by targeting their illicit gains, but civil liberties advocates like the Institute for Justice say the perverse profit incentives lead to police shaking down innocent owners.

It's not unheard of for some officers to cross the line from legally sanctioned forfeiture to outright highway robbery. In 2021, federal prosecutors charged two former police officers in Rohnert Park, California, with extorting money and marijuana from motorists during traffic stops.

Numerous police departments and district attorney offices have gotten into trouble for using asset forfeiture revenues as slush funds for frivolous expenses and fancy swag.

Big cash seizures aren't the day-to-day reality of asset forfeiture, though. An Institute for Justice report found that, in the 21 states with available data, the average cash forfeiture between 2015 and 2019 was $1,276.

In the Rebel Ridge trailer, Richmond seeks out legal advice but gets more bad news. 

"You can fight for the money," a woman tells him, "but that'll take most of a year, and cost you twice what you're owed."

This, too, is the reality of asset forfeiture in many states. Property owners have no right to an attorney in civil proceedings, and lawyer fees often exceed the value of the cash or car seized.

"I advise every one of my clients that unless you want to spend money to get money back, it just doesn't make sense," Mississippi defense attorney Richard Rehfeldt told me in 2017. "Some people fight it on principle, but about 90 percent just let the money go, even when they can prove the money has nothing to do with illegal activity. It costs too much to go to court to fight. Even if you do it yourself, it's about $250 in filing fees. Normally a lawyer wants around $1,500 to file."

The good news is that a majority of states have passed bipartisan civil asset forfeiture reforms over the past decade, including measures to bar petty cash seizures, increase transparency, and strengthen protections for owners. A handful of states have effectively abolished it by requiring criminal convictions before property can be forfeited.

So it's becoming less and less likely that property owners targeted with civil forfeiture will have no recourse but to embark on an epic, blood-soaked revenge quest to get their stuff back.