
Police Can Use a Legal Grey Area to Take Indefinite Custody of Belongings - jseliger
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/08/how-police-use-a-legal-grey-area-to-rob-suspects-of-their-belongings/495740/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Best-Of-The-Atlantic+%28The+Atlantic+-+Best+Of%29&amp;single_page=true
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empath75
Related: [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/10/dea-travel-
rec...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/10/dea-travel-record-
airport-seizures/88474282/)

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gsmethells
The law needs a refactoring of its technical debt. But who can do the work to
get that done?

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kevin_b_er
If the law permits a unconstitutional loophole, then the law itself is
unconstitutional. Start striking laws permitting the NYPD to operate this way
until you've removed the cancer that is the theft of personal property without
due process.

If too much is cut away, then I suppose the politicians will have to
prioritize making their laws legal, now won't they?

~~~
__derek__
Ideally you would be correct, but the big issue with that approach is that the
Supreme Court has proven itself pretty amenable to police and prosecutors.
Radley Balko's RISE OF THE WARRIOR COP[1] covers that extensively. In effect,
the police keep coming up with ways to dull the Amendments 3-6, with
legislatures' happily passing laws ratifying them. Unfortunately, the Court
tends to side with the state in those situations.

[1] Panel discussion here: [http://www.cato.org/events/rise-warrior-cop-
militarization-a...](http://www.cato.org/events/rise-warrior-cop-
militarization-americas-police-forces)

