# Police are gamers too! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 24, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280 "2008-11-24T17:44:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/21 "2008-11-24T20:29:04Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > From the article i linked in my previous post And I said, **in the OP** there was no plausible evidence that the stoners were telling the truth. From **your** link it seems as if the stoners are **not** telling the truth. The police confiscated the item as evidence… tne police did not “steal” it. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/22 "2008-11-24T20:33:31Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > From **your** link it seems as if the stoners are **not** telling the truth. The police confiscated the item as evidence… tne police did not “steal” it. Evidence of what, precisely? That teens play video games? Do we need the police to prove that to your satisfaction? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/23 "2008-11-24T20:39:16Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > And I said, **in the OP** there was no plausible evidence that the stoners were telling the truth. On what basis are you calling them “stoners”? > [@](#): > > From **your** link it seems as if the stoners are **not** telling the truth. The police confiscated the item as evidence… tne police did not “steal” it. What justification was there to confiscate the item? There was no evidence of any crime being committed. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/24 "2008-11-24T20:40:45Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > And I said, **in the OP** there was no plausible evidence that the stoners were telling the truth. > > From **your** link it seems as if the stoners are **not** telling the truth. The police confiscated the item as evidence… tne police did not “steal” it. You, and they, can use whatever name takes your fancy. But when they take something with no cause, i think “steal” fits the bill pretty nicely. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/25 "2008-11-24T20:42:38Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > On what basis are you calling them “stoners”? This also is a good question. You seem, **Fish** , to be quite happy to refer to them as stoners despite zero evidence, yet you are willing to make the most generous interpretation possible of the cop’s actions. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/26 "2008-11-24T20:44:14Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > From a related site \*“But the console could not be found because it had not yet been transferred to the evidence room”. \*That too is common, and it can take a day for an item to be loged in. Really, until we give this a day or so, there’s no reason to be calling this cop a theif. Which is one reason why evidence gets tossed in court. I don’t know what the procedure is for logging evidence in this precinct, but it sounds like the chain of custody on this piece of “evidence” has been pretty screwed up. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/27 "2008-11-25T13:56:02Z")
What we know is that the cop took the xbox, what we don’t know is why, and we’ll likely never know. The problem is, as **Scumpup** said, there’s often an exchange of goods for services on the street. This is not only common, it’s necessary. It’s how information gets exchanged, how intel gets gathered, how real bad guys get busted and how some people need to learn lessons. It’s great in theory to rail against the “injustice” that took place here. It’s true, the cop was being a dickhead. It’s probably also true that because the CP looks like he does, he gets pegged as a knuckle head. It’s not necessarily fair, and yes, it’s profiling, but more often than not, it works. He looks and/or acts like a dozen guys I’ve encountered in the past 10 days who, by their aroma alone, were also stoners or hung out with them long enough to come away with at LEAST the odor of teh dope still on their clothing. Also, we don’t know what the experiences the CP has had with the local coppers. He may have a long history of arrests or negative contact with the police that the public will never be allowed to know about. I’m not condoning what the cop did, but I’m saying that you have less to fear from the police than you do from the bad guys. There’s a reason this is a news story, because it doesn’t happen all that often. cp=complaining party ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/28 "2008-11-25T14:19:11Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > There’s a reason this is a news story, because it doesn’t happen all that often. No; it’s because he’s making a public fight of it instead of rolling over. It’s not rare at all, and is often a lot worse than an X-box. It could’ve been his car instead, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/29 "2008-11-25T14:33:50Z")
What was the deputy’s name? Why was that not mentioned? ---
**Author:** ![Xan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ac8455/32.png) [@Xan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/30 "2008-11-25T14:43:36Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > What we know is that the cop took the xbox, what we don’t know is why, and we’ll likely never know. The problem is, as **Scumpup** said, there’s often an exchange of goods for services on the street. This is not only common, it’s necessary. It’s how information gets exchanged, how intel gets gathered, how real bad guys get busted and how some people need to learn lessons. > > It’s great in theory to rail against the “injustice” that took place here. It’s true, the cop was being a dickhead. It’s probably also true that because the CP looks like he does, he gets pegged as a knuckle head. It’s not necessarily fair, and yes, it’s profiling, but more often than not, it works. He looks and/or acts like a dozen guys I’ve encountered in the past 10 days who, by their aroma alone, were also stoners or hung out with them long enough to come away with at LEAST the odor of teh dope still on their clothing. Also, we don’t know what the experiences the CP has had with the local coppers. He may have a long history of arrests or negative contact with the police that the public will never be allowed to know about. > > I’m not condoning what the cop did, but I’m saying that you have less to fear from the police than you do from the bad guys. There’s a reason this is a news story, because it doesn’t happen all that often. > cp=complaining party Or the cop could have been lying about the marijuana in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/31 "2008-11-25T16:00:42Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > On what basis are you calling them “stoners”? On the same basis that the OP is calling the cop an “average cop” and assuming that all cops are _ipso facto_ thieving, bullying assholes. I admit that there’s something funny going on in this story. However, since the Straight Dope has a “oh noes, evil cops” Pit thread about every 2.2 minutes, my knee-jerk response is to say, “on what evidence do you believe the police are necessarily in the wrong?” I’m sick and tired of people always assuming that police are bad people. The OP didn’t have that evidence, and I’m waiting for such evidence to come to light. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/32 "2008-11-25T16:02:30Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > You seem, **Fish** , to be quite happy to refer to them as stoners despite zero evidence, yet you are willing to make the most generous interpretation possible of the cop’s actions. Hey, somebody’s got to represent the other side of the I’m-a-kneejerk-idiot spectrum. There’s no basis for referring to the cop as a thief and the teens as pure-as-the-driven-snow innocent victims except habitual paranoia. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/33 "2008-11-25T16:07:50Z")
> [@Xan](#): > > Or the cop could have been lying about the marijuana in the first place. It’s certainly possible that the cop was lying about it. I am not going to automatically accept the word of _either party_. The evidence presented in the OP seems so egregiously one-sided that it’s hard to swallow. Maybe the cop was leaning on some teenage kids in order to steal an Xbox. But maybe the teens did smell of marijuana and maybe they _did_ have something to hide (which, of course, they would never admit to in a news article). If the police duly process their paperwork and the kid gets his Xbox back, I’d say we still don’t have reliable evidence that either party is necessarily 100% in the right. (Of course, if we see evidence on the Xbox hard drive that somebody was playing games between the time of the arrest and the time of the return, then you got something.) Is it too much to wait for evidence any more? We have to reach for the rope every time a police officer is _accused_ of inappropriate behavior? ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/34 "2008-11-25T16:40:50Z")
> [@](#): > > **Fish** said: > There’s no basis for referring to the cop as a thief and the teens as pure-as-the-driven-snow innocent victims except habitual paranoia. I am struggling to think of a reason why a cop would take an XBOX off of someone when he has absolutely no reason to believe that it is stolen. They say that it was confiscated as evidence. Evidence of what? Typically there is some sort of crime which an item is evidence of before said item is actually confiscated. What is the crime that caused the cops to believe the XBOX was evidence and that they had to seize it? ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/35 "2008-11-25T16:54:10Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > This dickhead cop did a dickhead thing and needs time off for it. Nothing personal **buttonjockey308** , but this attitude pisses me off. Time off? This guy should be prosecuted for theft and do time in prison just like any other citizen. Why is it that when cops commit crimes that they only get fired instead of going to prison? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/36 "2008-11-25T17:01:39Z")
You, **Fish** , are an idiot. I typically take the side of the police in the SDMB police pile ons, but you have gone beyond the pale in defending these assholes. There is no evidence that the kids were stoners. The police searched them and their car and found no evidence they had any illegal drugs. What evidence do you have that they were stoners? That one of the officers claimed to smell pot? That’s hearsay; they searched the kids and their car and no evidence was found. The police may have invented the smell so they could have probable cause, and you know what, I am not going to condemn them for this in this thread… But taking the XBox on the off chance that it was stolen property (even after they ran the serial number and found it clean) is an illegal seizure. If truly concerned, the police could have made a note of the serial number and ran that several days later and then went and picked up the kids if it was reported as stolen. Taking the console with zero evidence that a crime had been committed is criminal and you are a moron for defending it. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/37 "2008-11-25T17:05:12Z")
> [@catsix](#): > > I am struggling to think of a reason why a cop would take an XBOX off of someone when he has absolutely no reason to believe that it is stolen. I can’t either, **assuming the story is true.** But people are full of shit. I’m going to assume that the people in the story are lying about something, because that’s what people do. “I was just driving along and minding my own business and the cop pulls me over for _no reason at all_ and steals my Xbox and we’re completely innocent” doesn’t happen very often. I’m going to assume that either party may be right, and to skeptically eye any self-serving statements by the victims until we get a complete story representing the other side. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/38 "2008-11-25T17:06:40Z")
> [@Eyer8](#): > > But taking the XBox on the off chance that it was stolen property (even after they ran the serial number and found it clean) is an illegal seizure. If truly concerned, the police could have made a note of the serial number and ran that several days later and then went and picked up the kids if it was reported as stolen. Taking the console with zero evidence that a crime had been committed is criminal and you are a moron for defending it. How do you know that the victims are telling the truth? Are you willing to say that the story given by the OP is 100% without embellishment? I’m not. I’m not saying this policeman is 100% innocent. I’m saying take everything with a grain of salt. Too much to ask of you? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/39 "2008-11-25T17:45:36Z")
I guess I should clarify my earlier post about “informal confiscation.” When the cops I knew took something, usually a weapon but sometimes other things, off of a mook the underlying dynamic was one of punishment more than greed. Typically the item in question was something the mook could not legally have; perhaps it was stolen, or an illegal substance, or the mook’s own legal status interfered\_as with weapons. So the cop taking some ratbag’s pistol was less “I want this pistol for myself” than it was “You aren’t allowed to have a pistol, ratbag, so I’m taking it…and you should be kissing my ass for not bringing charges against you.” Keeping the pistol or knife was actually more of an afterthought. The other stuff they seized, like alcohol from minors or small amounts of illicit chemicals, just got dumped or flushed. Summary extra-legal punishment as a way of keeping the riff-raff acquainted with the pecking order, you see. “I’m flushing your dope, ratbag, and you can’t do a thing about it. Don’t let me see you out looking for more tonight.” If any of this X-box saga is true at all, it could be a similar situation. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/40 "2008-11-25T17:49:58Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > No; it’s because he’s making a public fight of it instead of rolling over. It’s not rare at all, and is often a lot worse than an X-box. It could’ve been his car instead, for example. I believe I understand your leanings, but this statement makes you look completely ignorant of the systems and processes in place. It’s more tenable to say the cops rolled the dope dealer for cash or jewelry or whatever, but a car? No. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280.md?page=3)