# 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:** 3
**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, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/41 "2008-11-25T18:01:13Z")
[QUOTE=Jamaika a jamaikaiaké] 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? [/QUOTE] First off, he didn’t break into someones house and steal it and the CP is getting the thing back, so at worst he ‘impounded’ the xbox. Second, as I said, no one REALLY knows why. The cop may have violated policy, he may have gone against SOP/SOG or he may have had a good reason that we’ll never know for taking the xbox that would have outraged the public all the more. Say he had a joint in his pocket, or a minor amount of some illegal drug, just as a for instance. Rather than take him down, book him put him into the system, set all the nonsense in motion for what will eventually be a minor fine and/or community service, the cop took the xbox away and decided what to do with it later. I’m not saying the exchange is per se “right” I’m saying it happens. Cops just don’t walk around willy-nilly taking the property of innocent people. The ones that do get harsher sentences than the average theif in many jurisdictions because you not only add the count of theft, aggravated by the position of trust but then add official misconduct and the fact that the cops have to go spend time in the jail they helped put people in. It’s a much more untenable position with that in mind to be a garden variety thief. > [@Xan](#): > > Or the cop could have been lying about the marijuana in the first place. He sure could have. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/42 "2008-11-25T18:15:26Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > 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. Can I just add a little information here? 1. They weren’t pulled over for “no reason at all”, they readily admitted they were pulled over for speeding, but did not get a ticket. 2. They aren’t kids. The XBox owner looks like he’s about 28-30 years old. He’s a black guy with dreds. ---
**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 25, 2008, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/43 "2008-11-25T18:32:30Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > 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. So the cops you knew were all criminals? Good to know that such upstanding citizens are looking out for our interests. ---
**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, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/44 "2008-11-25T18:43:08Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > So the cops you knew were all criminals? > > Good to know that such upstanding citizens are looking out for our interests. The way police do things has changed. For the most part there is now more accountability, which is a good thing. There are also times, however, when it’d be nice if a cop could still administer a little attitude correction with his nightstick and then send a lowlife on his way. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/45 "2008-11-25T19:05:06Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > The way police do things has changed. For the most part there is now more accountability, which is a good thing. There are also times, however, when it’d be nice if a cop could still administer a little attitude correction with his nightstick and then send a lowlife on his way. That attitude makes you a moron. ---
**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, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/46 "2008-11-25T19:08:14Z")
Your genetics make you a moron. My attitude could change. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/47 "2008-11-25T19:09:23Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Your genetics make you a moron. My attitude could change. My aren’t you clever. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/48 "2008-11-25T19:15:29Z")
> [@Xan](#): > > Or the cop could have been lying about the marijuana in the first place. I think this is not an unlikely scenario; I’ve had it happen to me before and I have never smoked it and the people I was with had been with me certainly didn’t have any. He tried to use it to search my car and, after denying him that and he got frustrated enough to physically threaten me infront of 2 other witnesses, I got out of the speeding ticket too. Either way, based on the available evidence, you can’t say whether the cop lied and used it as an excuse to search his car and rob him, or if there was some sort of backdoor bribe or extra-legal punishment that went on that involved the Xbox. Either way, there’s no justifiable reason for confiscating the confiscating the Xbox, even if he was trying to help the kid avoid a misdemeanor and still learn his lesson, he was acting outside the law. That cop should, at minimum, be suspended if he was doing some sort of extra-legal discipline, and if he did steal it he should absolutely be prosecuted. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/49 "2008-11-25T19:20:45Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > Either way, based on the available evidence, you can’t say … _Anything_, really. We don’t have any decent updates with something like a statement from the PD. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/50 "2008-11-25T19:49:39Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > 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?” We already know that the police took his Xbox - both sides admit that. That puts the burden of proof on the police to show they had a good reason to do so. > [@Scumpup](#): > > “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.” Your friends in the police department deliberately subvert firearms laws? ---
**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, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/51 "2008-11-25T21:11:02Z")
I have no friends who are cops any more. They are all retired or dead (from age, not gunfire)now. Yes, some of them did subvert firearms laws. Some of them also let folks go or drove them home when they should have, by the law, written them tickets for speeding or DUI. Sometimes they hauled a kid home by his ear to momma instead of charging him with retail theft. They used to do lots of things. Police work, as I noted upthread, has changed. There is far more accountability, which is generally\_but not always\_a good thing. Those old timey cops I knew as a kid, and was later privileged to work with a bit, were good men, IMO. They knew the people in their jurisdiction and were largely well liked by those people. They didn’t enforce the letter of the law on all occasions, it’s true. Some of those very people they informally punished will tell you, quite honestly, that Officer So-and-So did him a great favor by giving him a knot on the head, a ride home, and a chance to straighten out instead of demolishing his future by making him a convict. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/52 "2008-11-25T21:30:37Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Some of those very people they informally punished will tell you, quite honestly, that Officer So-and-So did him a great favor by giving him a knot on the head, a ride home, and a chance to straighten out instead of demolishing his future by making him a convict. I’m one of them. I don’t think it’s legally kosher for the cops to make a 16-year-old clean toilets before letting him go. Probably also wasn’t in the book that they should casually remind me that people sometimes get ass-raped in jail (which I had no immediate chance of going to anyway). But it was good policing, and I appreciate it now. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/53 "2008-11-25T21:47:57Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > NEVER travel with your console! Or donuts. Either are apparently too much temptation to the average cop. Well, see, there’s your problem. It’s always safer to keep donuts in the car. If these kids had a couple dozen glazed & frosted, they’d be free to go. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/54 "2008-11-25T22:08:53Z")
At least they didn’t shoot the passengers like in _Magnum Force_. There’s got to be a reason police departments hate private gun ownership. Hm. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/55 "2008-11-25T22:11:14Z")
Oh, I’ve met some dickish cops. And I’ve been a real dick to other cops who were just doing their jobs–which meant they ended up restraining me as a precaution. (I was an obnoxious youth.) But I’ve been treated decently by some police as well. I don’t want to encourage the kind of knee-jerk anti-police attitudes I had as a teenager. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/56 "2008-11-25T23:00:06Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > Either way, there’s no justifiable reason for confiscating the confiscating the Xbox, even if he was trying to help the kid avoid a misdemeanor and still learn his lesson, I don’t know why this is bugging but, _he’s not a “kid”_. The man graduated from highschool in 1993. So he’s like 34 or so. Otherwise, yeah, on criminal law blogs they are saying it’s pretty much a clear-cut case of illegal seizure. You can’t just take a citizen’s property and have them prove a negative, “Yeah? Well, prove you _didn’t_ steal it.” And given the lack of proper and prompt documentation that would be the best case scenario. The stop was good (speeding), the search was sort of okay (probable cause due to the alleged smell of pot), the seizure was not. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/57 "2008-11-25T23:12:43Z")
You wonder why they didn’t charge him for the speeding if they could have legitimately. According to the persons reaction they can get charged for a crime or sent on their way with a warning. If he was giving lip for example - then why not charge for the crime you stopped him for? ---
**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 26, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/58 "2008-11-26T00:29:15Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > 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. Yes. They just accuse people of a drug crime, take the car and it’s theirs. Good luck trying to get it back. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/59 "2008-11-26T00:47:29Z")
**buttonjockey308** , to expand on **Der Trihs** ’s answer: you should check out [RICO](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RICO) statutes. AIUI, property seized in a RICO bust has to be proven to be 100% the results of legitimate work, and monies, or the gov’t keeps it. Even if everyone involved in the original bust is found to be innocent of all criminal charges, that’s a standard of proof few people can support. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Krebbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@Mr.Krebbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Krebbs)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280/60 "2008-11-26T01:22:23Z")
For those interested, I found a thread about this in another forum I frequent. One of the posters on said forum had this to say: > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **GLK38** from Glocktalk:_ > > This Orange County Deputy is one of my instructors in my academy. Today he was talking about the whole incident. > > First let me say this. He is a Sgt. in a Violent Crimes Tac Squad. His squad has been dealing w/ a bunch of robberies. The main things being taken? Xbox and PS3s. Sgt was sitting outside of a pawn shop in an unmarked watching as the gentleman in the news story “the victim” was going in and out of the pawn shop taking items back and forth. The car they were driving had an expired tag so when they started to leave he pulled them over. > > When Sgt. Hosey walked up to the vehicle he smelled a STRONG odor of Marijuana. There is your probable cause for a search. > > This fine citizen was recently released from jail for robbery and Sgt. Hosey knew the guy. Sgt. Hosey asked about the Xbox and the guy said he was taking it to the pawn shop so he could pay his light bill. Funny thing is when he searched the guy he had $300 cash in his pocket. > > I know the story said 8 games right? Well when you have 2 NBA lives 2 Madden footballs 2 Halos and 2 Need for Speeds thats a bit odd. When I buy a new game for $60 I sure dont buy double of every game. So really he had 4 games with a double of each. Smells fishy. > > Sgt. Hosey could not run the serial because it was scratched off. Thats why the pawn shop wouldn’t buy it from him. > > The Xbox was taken to Evidence to determine if it was stolen. It was not processed buy the time he went to pick it up with his “Receipt”. The receipt he had was for a different model. A cheaper arcade model. Thats why they wouldn’t release it to him. > > It was good police work. Period. > > As usual the media smelled blood and ran away with it. I can’t vouch for the source, but this story seems just as plausible as the article to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-are-gamers-too/474280.md?page=4)