[HN Gopher] US police are selling seized phones with personal da...
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US police are selling seized phones with personal data still on
them
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 29 points
Date : 2023-05-28 16:37 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newscientist.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newscientist.com)
| aetherane wrote:
| I don't get why police would be able to seized phones in the
| first place.
| dingusdew wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United...
|
| "In civil forfeiture, assets are seized by police based on a
| suspicion of wrongdoing, and without having to charge a person
| with specific wrongdoing, with the case being between police
| and the thing itself, sometimes referred to by the Latin term
| in rem, meaning "against the property"; the property itself is
| the defendant and no criminal charge against the owner is
| needed."
|
| In America, when it comes to civil asset forfeiture, if they
| don't have enough evidence to charge you with a crime, they
| will charge your possessions with a crime. If you have cash in
| your vehicle, they can charge the cash with a crime, like being
| used for drug trafficking. Similarly, they can charge a locked
| phone with a crime of drug trafficking, without actually having
| to prove it. Mostly because taking the item means they will
| begin an "investigation" into whether or not it "committed" a
| crime.
|
| "In contrast, criminal forfeiture is a legal action brought as
| "part of the criminal prosecution of a defendant", described by
| the Latin term in personam, meaning "against the person", and
| happens when government indicts or charges the property that is
| either used in connection with a crime, or derived from a
| crime, that is suspected of being committed by the defendant;
| the seized assets are temporarily held and become government
| property officially after an accused person has been convicted
| by a court of law; if the person is found to be not guilty, the
| seized property must be returned."
| PicassoCTs wrote:
| This just sounds like a gateway to the widespread open
| robbery and stealing that is the corruption plaguing police
| in 3rd world countries. How could this pass any scrutiny as a
| valid anti-drug strategy? To dry up funds, the better
| strategy would have always been, to at least temporary
| destroy the prices by state-production of drugs.
|
| This protestant mindset regarding vices and how to fight them
| is really self-destructive to the society it possess, to the
| point were it creates more corruption and moral decay then
| the one it fought in the first place. Society was saved, by
| destroying all of society.
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(page generated 2023-05-28 23:01 UTC)