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Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

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Re: Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

#51

Post by searine »

jmcmichael wrote: post #45
searine wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Let me guess: you're a white male, aren't you? This is an extremely shitty and racist argument to make, particularly on the internet where you shouldn't make assumptions about who people are. Were the cops wrong in being overzealous? Obviously. Is the poster automatically a "white male" because they consider an alternative perspective? No, they just have a different opinion than you.

If one has ever been cuffed or had a weapon pointed at them, they're far less likely to be so cavalier in dismissing another's similar experience. Given that African Americans are far, far more likely to be unjustly detained in such a matter, it seems reasonable to assume that mcphage is a white male, given his callous response.

>it seems reasonable to assume that mcphage is a white male

Being racist might seem reasonable, but it is not constructive because you use it to ignore the content of the poster's argument.

Even if the content of the poster's argument is flawed, attack the flaws, not the person.

Re: Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

#53

Post by UVB-76 »

philh wrote: post #47
UVB-76 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your timeline doesn't match his account. He consented to the search of the laptop before being detained. He did not know it was an undercover police officer conducting the search, but that is not relevant. He was subsequently detained, until such time as it became obvious he was innocent, and then released.

The prospective buyer wasn't a police officer.

That's an even better point. The Fourth Amendment doesn't protect you from letting a stranger search your laptop.

Re: Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

#54

Post by teh_klev »

zodPod wrote: post #14
coldcode wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serial number on MacbookPros start with a C, mine does at least.

In the article, the guy seemed to believe that it wasn't the serial number. That it was something you had to turn the computer on for or something. > Derek tells the woman the C-number is off. Not the serial number—they were looking for some other number in the computer.

I don't know Macs, but dell tag numbers are burned into the BIOS. Possibly checking that instead of a sticker that could have a fake serial is a more reliable method of verifying the number. i.e. your less than technically competent thief might not know about this or how to change the BIOS one.

Re: Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

#55

Post by theandrewbailey »

matwood wrote: post #52

IANAL, but why is a warrant not required to detain him and search his property?

To the police, this was a sting. I'm not sure, but maybe warrants aren't needed for those? The "suspect" willingly allowed the property to be searched (drive attached and booted). The police overreacted, and according to Derek, ignored the plan and substituted their own. There's no detail on how Derek was robbed, but if it was more of a mugging, the police would consider any suspect "armed and dangerous" in ANY context.

Re: Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

#56

Post by orbitingpluto »

xt00 wrote: post #9

I've read in the past stories about cops getting tips from people that their stolen stuff is on Craigslist. At the time I thought it's cool they are catching people but I guess if they rely upon the thinking of a civilian who just had their laptop stolen going and saying "omg that's my laptop!!" "I mean sure the serial number is wrong maybe they are lying about that.. It's totally mine.. Hey police you gotta bust tha…

I am responsible for creating a false positive. A notebook was stolen soon after I received it back from an OEM screen repair. The next day the same model showed up on Kijiji of all places. From the pictures, I was certain it was mine because there was an identical ExpressCard, the logo on the back of the screen was bent just as I had received it from repair, 2 of the 4 stickers were removed just as mine were, Also the RAM and hard drive were a non-standard upgraded amount. To top it off, it even had the ubiquitous glowing mushroom background. The cops checked it out, and the serial # and windows product key did not match.

The 'collision' of my cosmetic and functional alterations matching with someone else may have seemed unlikely, but it really wasn't. The laptop did not have a SD card reader (the expresscard), the stickers were in annoying places, of course you're going to get the same size of upgraded hard drive & memory, and that logo attachment sucked. Even the mushroom background was common enough.

The police showed up and asked to match the numbers at the door of the seller. There wasn't. They apologized. They phoned me back, and I apologized for wasting their time. I also made an apology to the seller, who was incredibly cool about it. Probably because no tasers were involved.

Re: Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

#57

Post by UVB-76 »

dahart wrote: post #50
UVB-76 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your timeline doesn't match his account. He consented to the search of the laptop before being detained. He did not know it was an undercover police officer conducting the search, but that is not relevant. He was subsequently detained, until such time as it became obvious he was innocent, and then released.

That's weird; I didn't present a timeline. > He consented to the search of the laptop before being detained. He did not know it was an undercover police officer conducting the search, but that is not relevant. I'm not sure you know what "consent" actually means. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consent_search A consent search requires the individual whose person or property is being searched to freely and voluntarily wa…

The matter of consent is much more nuanced than that, but as another comment on this thread points out, the search was not conducted by a police officer, so Fourth Amendment arguments are moot.

He consented to a stranger searching his laptop, and the Fourth Amendment provides no protections against that.

Re: Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

#59

Post by UVB-76 »

matwood wrote: post #52

IANAL, but why is a warrant not required to detain him and search his property?

Unless I'm misunderstanding his account of events, the police did not search his property. The person whose laptop was stolen searched it, and the owner of the laptop consented to that search.

The police detained him, I suspect, because they were satisfied they had reasonable suspicion he was handling stolen goods.

Re: Cops Cuffed Me for Selling My Own Mac

#60

Post by TheCoelacanth »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #24
fucking_tragedy wrote: post #11

If this can happen over a stolen laptop, we have given the police too much power, resources and authority, and too little training, education and accountability. They are essentially armed goons for those with property and the right complexion. The people responsible for these actions make upwards of $180k a year and will suffer no repercussions for their actions. Let that sink in.

I generally agree with you and I'm generally very critical of the police and I think they handled this very poorly, but I don't think we know enough to say they shouldn't have been involved at all. If Derek is telling the truth that his stolen laptop with lots of personal information on it has turned his life into a movie then it sounds like there is a lot more to know.

It's okay for them to have been involved, but it certainly wasn't okay for them to use violence in this situation. A taser is a potentially deadly weapon; it should only be used in response to deadly force not simply because someone is suspected of theft.
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