<story><title>Arrested by Undercover Officers After Trying to Sell His Laptop Online</title><url>https://twitter.com/i/moments/731957349640867840</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>djrogers</author><text>Wow, I am really looking forward to finding g out more about this. What agency were they with?  How often do they do this?  Was it random or targeted, and if the latter at the person or device?&lt;p&gt;Side note - he wasn&amp;#x27;t arrested, he was handcuffed, had a weapon stuck in his back, was detained, had an illegal search performed on his possessions, and all by purported law enforcement officers who refused to identify themselves.  In many ways this is worse than being arrested - with an arrest there are other layers of law enforcement to appeal to and receive justice.  With an arrest at least we would have officers names, charges, etc, which if faked could theoretically result in discipline or firing of the officer.  I know it doesn&amp;#x27;t always work that way, but at least the checks and balances exist.&lt;p&gt;With this kind of officer-level illegal search and detainment, there is very very little that can be done to seek any sort of justice.  If this kids mom wasn&amp;#x27;t a reporter, &lt;i&gt;nobody&lt;/i&gt; would have heard or believed the story.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>joe_the_user</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Side note - he wasn&amp;#x27;t arrested, he was handcuffed, had a weapon stuck in his back, was detained, had an illegal search performed on his possessions, and all by purported law enforcement officers who refused to identify themselves.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I have some news for you. Arrest means &lt;i&gt;nothing&lt;/i&gt; but detained&amp;#x2F;held&amp;#x2F;stopped. Most people imagine an arrest action has something formal to it, like having your rights read or someone announcing you&amp;#x27;re arrested. But it doesn&amp;#x27;t. You&amp;#x27;ve been detained? You have been arrested. The cops zero obligation to tell you anything and they never have had such obligation.&lt;p&gt;As to whether it was illegal? The police have wide latitude to determine probable cause for whatever. You&amp;#x27;re right this kind of thing happens all the time, you&amp;#x27;re right it&amp;#x27;s despicable. But sadly, it&amp;#x27;s broadly legal and more or less the &amp;quot;normal&amp;quot; way the law works.&lt;p&gt;If you read the wikipedia article, it describes rights but you will notice the only limits in the US is how long you can be held and whether your statements can held against you (at which point you are supposed to be read you&amp;#x27;re right, except for limitless exceptions to this requirement).&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Arrest&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Arrest&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Arrested by Undercover Officers After Trying to Sell His Laptop Online</title><url>https://twitter.com/i/moments/731957349640867840</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>djrogers</author><text>Wow, I am really looking forward to finding g out more about this. What agency were they with?  How often do they do this?  Was it random or targeted, and if the latter at the person or device?&lt;p&gt;Side note - he wasn&amp;#x27;t arrested, he was handcuffed, had a weapon stuck in his back, was detained, had an illegal search performed on his possessions, and all by purported law enforcement officers who refused to identify themselves.  In many ways this is worse than being arrested - with an arrest there are other layers of law enforcement to appeal to and receive justice.  With an arrest at least we would have officers names, charges, etc, which if faked could theoretically result in discipline or firing of the officer.  I know it doesn&amp;#x27;t always work that way, but at least the checks and balances exist.&lt;p&gt;With this kind of officer-level illegal search and detainment, there is very very little that can be done to seek any sort of justice.  If this kids mom wasn&amp;#x27;t a reporter, &lt;i&gt;nobody&lt;/i&gt; would have heard or believed the story.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lsiebert</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not so sure he wasn&amp;#x27;t arrested, legally speaking. If he had resisted I certainly suspect he&amp;#x27;d have been charged with resisting arrest. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.law.cornell.edu&amp;#x2F;wex&amp;#x2F;arrest&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.law.cornell.edu&amp;#x2F;wex&amp;#x2F;arrest&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>