Like its protagonist, “Rebel Ridge” is equal parts brain and brawn. A new action thriller from director Jeremy Saulnier that quickly hit the No. 1 spot on Netflix, the movie has plenty of bullets and fistfights. However, at the center is also an unlikely –– and timely –– idea that gives it Rambo with a New Yorker subscription energy.
The setup is simple. Terry Richmond is riding his bike to a local jail with $10,000 in cash to bail out his cousin. He’s run off the road by local cops who take the money –– and realize far too late that they’ve messed with the wrong man. What follows is both a slowly building potboiler of an action movie and an examination of civil asset forfeiture, a law enforcement practice with a long, problematic history.
As strange and frustrating as it might seem that police can just take Terry’s money without charging him with a crime, the situation is far more common –– and realistic –– than you might think, says Nikos Passas, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern University. “It’s a legal process enabling law enforcement agencies to seize property which is suspected of having connections to criminal activity,” Passas says. “The difference between criminal and civil forfeiture is that the criminal one requires a conviction. A civil forfeiture targets the property itself, and often it is done without charging the owner with wrongdoing.”
