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Stolen iPad's Reported Location Not Enough To Warrant Search, Say Dutch Police
lbalbalba writes "A location message sent from a stolen iPad by an anti-theft application turns out to be insufficient evidence to issue a search warrant for the Dutch authorities. A Dutch man reported his iPad as stolen to the Dutch authorities last month. Despite the fact that the rightful owner was able to locate his iPad within hours of the theft, thanks to the anti-theft application he had installed, the Dutch authorities did not issue a warrant to perform a search. According to the prosecutors, a search warrant is 'a very heavy measure,' that should only be used when there is 'sufficient suspicion.' The theft report by the owner was viewed as 'no objective evidence' in the case."
And once again we find that it's only true to a government if their own agencies or personnel tell them it's so. A private citizen should be able to produce evidence and have it considered with the same weight as something produced by a policing force. Providing obtaining that evidence didn't violate the law in any way.
You can bet that if it had been the police that can up with that GPS location they would have a warrant in hand tight now.
Careful what you say around me.. I will assume you mean it.
Police are just there to "stop" drugs, "stop" prostitution, and beat protesters. They don't actually care about crime that affects the average person. I've had a gun pointed at my head for trying to ask directions, but when I get robbed, they won't even take a report because "the phone system is down and you have to drive 40 minutes to make the report in person". But oh, you'll make me turn my marijuana-legalization-themed shirt inside out at my sister's public high school graduation under threat of arrest. It's good that we have our fucking priorities straight.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
This is the way it should be. Any Joe Programmer can make an app that makes it look like stolen goods are behind that closed door. Taking evidence from theft prevention and tracking apps is the exact same as taking the victim's word for it.
That's not what this is about at all. The Netherlands is a country that takes its fundamental privacy-from-the-police assurances more seriously than the US does.
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Looks like those guns are doing a great job of protecting you. It's almost as if a culture that regards force as a valid solution to disputes encourages crime...
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It's almost as if you don't know how statistics work. ("burglaries per 100,000 people").
If you want to keep chanting "we're #1", then please stop justifying gun ownership on the basis that you have lots of poor people.
Since the figures are per 100,000 people, I see no reason not to compare them. Holland has a much greater population density giving greater opportunities for burglary. The two countries have very similar average incomes, though spread differently.I think the comparison is as reasonable as any country-to-country comparison.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Statistics for burglaries per 100,000 people, using the most recent figures I could find (2006):
Looks like those guns are doing a great job of protecting you. It's almost as if a culture that regards force as a valid solution to disputes encourages crime...
On the other hand, in the UK whith some of the strictest gun laws in the world, there were 1,157.7 burglaries per 100,000 people (also, conveniently, in 2006 statistics). It's almost as if two data points are insufficient to establish a causative or even correlative relation of any kind.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
Had he not reported the stolen shotgun and the thief got caught shooting someone with it, they'll assume he sold the firearm to a convicted felon and arrested him.
Yes, if the thief is the victim of an attack, he'll certainly be a "person of interest" but do you rally think a criminal is going to call the cops because somebody beat the shit out of him? The thief won't even call the cops if your friend broke the thief's trunk open and got his phone and gun back.
Thieves generally avoid the police whenever they can.
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No, it's almost as if a culture with a huge population of poor people encourages crime. It's cute to compare tiny little Holland to the US though.
Don't forget retarded people, because it's the only country I know that doesn't understand concepts like "per person", "per square kilometer" or other forms of normalization.
"Guns in nightstands protect against crime" "Here's some crime figures per 100,000 inhabitants" "Cute, but you can't compare a big and small country" "???"
"We can't build fast Internet in the US, the population is too thin." "Uh but this country does with a lower population density than yours (people/km^2)" "Cute, but you can't compare a big and small country" "???"
"We're not so bad polluters, China emits more CO2 than us" "Yes but China is 1.33 billion people and you're 300 million, per person you emit more than triple what a Chinese person does." "Hurr durr, I ignore what you said and China is worse". "???"
Arguing here I get enough stupid from both posters and moderators to make me want to tear my hair out and then I remember this is supposed to be the intelligentsia of the US, the nerds. I guess that's true when I see the support a guy like Santorum has, but you're over a hurdle about two inches high. Could someone please teach Slashdot some remedial math classes so my intelligence stops being insulted? Believe it or not, it is possible to compare the US to other countries even if they have different sizes and populations. Everywhere else this is accepted but here I sometimes feel like I just preached evolution in a southern baptist church group.
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