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Woman Says Officer Tried To Sell Her Stuff On CraigslistComments:35
Posted by
samzenpus
on Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:09 AM
from the I-didn't-know-you-still-wanted-that dept.
from the I-didn't-know-you-still-wanted-that dept.
Quothz writes "Last spring, an Arlington police officer listed his neighbor's athletic gear on Craigslist. After a review, the Tarrant District Attorney's office has decided no crime was committed. 'The law just wasn't there,' says county prosecutor Dixie Bersano. So, Texans, clean up those yards and lock those doors, your stuff is free for the giving."
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WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Informative)
criminal mischief charge
Technically, this is worse than an armed robbery: you get charged with all kinds of things if you try to defend your property.
Re: (Score:2)
You're being creative and I give you points for that compared to the whole "conspiracy to commit theft" angle that others have taken, but criminal mischief typically involves damage or defacement to property. No harm happened here.
However, I'm thinking that he's perhaps committed wire fraud, since there was a clear intent to deceive based on a material representation through interstate wire facilities. If you could get a federal prosecutor to take the charge seriously, he could be up for 20 years. (Given
Re: (Score:2)
No harm happened here.
Actually, some property was taken despite the owners actively guarding an eye out. Read the article. And no, I'm not talking about the first item, which they actually gave away because they were going to get rid of it anyway. I'm talking about further down the article, their tether-ball thingy.
(Given the nature of the actual harm involved and the harshness of the penalties, I doubt you'd get one to look into prosecuting the case.)
The Feds should get involved. This issue isn't about getting the guy 20 years (give him a two thousand dollar fine and probation for all I care). It's about restoring faith in local police enforcement, and communicat
Re: (Score:2)
This is an inherent loser of a case. To make out a claim for malicious prosecution based on racial lines, you'll need to prove discriminatory effect and discriminatory intent. To do this, you'll generally have to find clear examples where the prosecutor has been either pursuing cases on behalf of white victims or against black cops -- enough to establish an actual pattern of bias. Even then, the court will likely defer to prosecutorial discretion if any other explanation would suffice to explain the disc
Re: (Score:2)
No, the lady needs to post a whole bunch of the officer's items as free to give away on Craigslist and any other classified website.
If the law says it's OK, then it would be interesting to see what happens when the shoe is on the other foot.
Heh. (Score:2)
suspected perpetrator:
"...Chad Lee Hickey, an Arlington police officer. Arlington Police Department spokesman Blake Miller will say only that the department is conducting an internal investigation of an employee.
Hickey, 29, could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Richard Carter, said Arlington police rules prohibit him or Hickey from discussing the allegations."
Just imagine how they would feel if someone pulled that kind of shenanigans on them! I bet between a police officer and a lawyer, they could find a law!
Don't neglect to note that this all happened in Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas- not Arlington, VA.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't neglect to note that this all happened in Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas- not Arlington, VA.
Blame the editor for that one - the original headline specified Texas. It also made it more clear that the listing was for free, not a sale - a sale would, according to TFA, be illegal.
Hmm... (Score:3, Insightful)
Selling other people's stuff without their permission is usually prefaced by taking said items, but I don't see why this should be any different. The guy stole her stuff and sold it. The people who picked it up are in possession of stolen property.
Re: (Score:1)
Fault of the owners. (Score:1, Informative)
If they had never permitted people to remove the items and instead protested the removal of the basketball hoop they would have been able to have the cop prosecuted under conspiracy as an accomplice to the crime of theft. Since the rightful owner did not post the ad the removal of said property from their home would have been theft.
However, as the article says when they confronted people coming to remove the items they permitted them to remove them because they planned to replace them. Their permission ne
Don't get mad, get even (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Just offer his landscaping for free. Free shrubs, just come dig them up!
Terrible write up, nothing was sold... (Score:3, Interesting)
RTFA:
These people live in a community with a homeowners association. They had some crap in there yard which included a tetherball stand and a movable basketball stand (the kind for driveways). There was some angst in the community that these items didn't belong (anyone that has ever dealt with a homeowners assoc. will understand).
Someone posted an add in Craigslist saying these two items where free for the taking. The add said not to knock on the door, just drive up with the pickup truck, load and leave.
In the Craigslist add the address given was the cops address. It said something to the effect 'next door to this address'.
Nothing in the article attempts to make the claim that the cop placed the add.
However, the victims are Luddites that have never heard of 'Craigslist'. They are black, therefore it is automatically racism.
It is quite possible no charges against the cop where placed because there was no evidence that the cop had anything to do with anything (except living next door to these people).
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It is quite possible no charges against the cop where placed because there was no evidence that the cop had anything to do with anything (except living next door to these people).
In the second article, you'll see that Craigslist notified her that the posting was placed with an account belonging to her cop neighbor. That's fairly damning evidence.
Whatever happened to conspiracy to commit? (Score:2)
This guy arranged to have her stuff stolen, and that is conspiracy.
Conspiracy? (Score:1)
What would it be if he simply walked onto their property himself and hauled the stuff to the dump? It's conspiracy to do that.
WRONG? YES. RACIAL? NO. (Score:3, Insightful)
Was what the officer did wrong?
YES.
Was it racial?
Most probably not. The (soon to be ex-) officer did not mention race at all, nor did his statement even come close.
"To me, it's racial," said Huwitt, who is black. Hickey is white. "You can look at it any other way, but that's the way I look at it."
-The problem here in America is not so much RACE but people thinking that any negative actions between two people of different races constitutes racism.
Yes, I feel that she was definitely wronged in having her stuff placed up for auction without her consent, but to make a race issue out of it is just plain stupid. She needs to grow the fuck up, stop being ignorant, and educate herself on what race actually is before she starts making charges of racism.
The police department that employs him should kick him to the curb.
Burden of the reciever? (Score:1)
I think the users of Craigslist are naive, much like new email users who believe every spam they receive. There were comments on the DallasNews site from readers to the effect of 'this should be against the law'. But it's not. There is no law against lying (outside of commercial product misrepresentat
Re: (Score:2)
text of the ad from the first link (emphasis mine):
this guy deliberately misrepresented himself as the owner of the property and worded it to lead anyone who might want it to just wander into the yard and take it.
Not Feeling Very Sympathetic (Score:2, Insightful)
From TFA:
When the first two men told her about the ad and offered to unload the basketball goal from their truck, Huwitt called her husband.
And yet she says...
"He put my life in danger, and my daughters," she said. "I just ran out there. Those guys could have killed me. "I could have grabbed a shotgun and shot it over nothing," she said. "And he's a police officer. How can he endanger people's lives like that?"
They sound like very dangerous criminals don't they? Thank the lord she had the "incredible" self restraint to go and talk to the gentlemen first before firing the aforementioned shotgun. Here's the clincher, though:
"To me, it's racial," said Huwitt, who is black. Hickey is white. "You can look at it any other way, but that's the way I look at it."
Right, because anytime a white person harms a black person, it's racism. Let's just ignore the fact that white people get into confrontations with one another all the time.
It sounds to me like she's a little crazy (for
Revenge (Score:2)