John Oliver Explores The Absurdity Of Civil Forfeiture Via 'Law & Order' And Jeff Goldblum

In his latest insightful, and alarming, episode of Last Week Tonight John Oliver takes a good hard look at civil forfeiture. Civil forfeiture means that the cops can take your stuff if they suspect it's been involved in a crime, even if you haven't actually been convicted of anything.

Oliver illustrates the idiocy of this law using a recent example in Philadelphia, namely the battle between city prosecutors and the Sourovelis family, whose home was seized in relation to their son's arrest on heroin charges.

And that's not the only case in Philly either, in the last ten years 1,000 houses, 3,290 vehicles and $44 million in cash has been seized by Philly officials.

To end Oliver drafts in Jeff Goldblum for a parody video called Law & Order: Civil Asset Forfeiture Unit, which wracks up the absurdity so you end up laughing at it all rather than crying.