Lily Hay Newman reports at Future Tense that the police department in Columbia, Missouri, recently announced that its lobby will be open 24/7 for people making Craigslist transactions or any type of exchange facilitated by Internet services following a trend begun by police stations in Virginia Beach, East Chicago and Boca Raton. Internet listings like Craigslist are, of course, a quick and convenient way to buy, sell, barter, and generally deal with junk. But tales of Craigslist-related assaults, robberies, and murders where victims are lured to locations with the promise of a sale, aren’t uncommon, an item being sold could be broken or fake, and the money being used to buy it could be counterfeit. "Transactions should not be conducted in secluded parking lots, behind a building, in a dark location especially when you’re dealing with strangers. Someone you’ve never met before – you have no idea what their intentions are – whether they have evil intent or the best of intentions,” says Officer James Cason Jr. With surveillance cameras running 24 hours a day, plus the obvious bonus of a constant police presence, meeting in the lobby of the police department can help weed out people trying to rip others off. "People with stolen items may not want to meet at the police department," says Bryana Maupin.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @07:19PM
Fuck that stupid PR video of a cop singing a taylor-swift song. [cnn.com] Actually protecting and serving is how you build trust in the community. This is a really good idea, as long as they don't start treating like an opportunity to intimidate/track/id people just for walking in.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by keplr on Saturday January 31 2015, @11:29PM
Do you think you won't be on camera the entire time? The parking lot is watched by cameras too, so they've got your license plate numbers. Hope nothing you're selling has been reported stolen, or even just a copy of the same product.
The few times I've bought/sold from CL I pick a coffee shop during a busy time of day. You're on camera there too, but probably not feeding directly into a Police/FBI facial recognition database. Given everything that's been revealed over the last couple of years, there's no excuse NOT to be paranoid. Every horrible, petty, overzealous, and ultimately ineffective, breach of privacy the government could think of that is technologically possible has been tried. And if I can think of how to do it, other people smarter than me must have figured it out a long time ago and put it into practice.
Stay away from police and DHS-types as much as possible.
I don't respond to ACs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @11:44PM
As infringements go, the fact that you were at a police station at a certain time is really, really low on the totem.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Sunday February 01 2015, @06:41PM
Of course, they'll want a cut for facilitating the transaction...extra 200% if the transaction is illegal...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday January 31 2015, @07:33PM
Friend of mine buys large tools (lathes drill presses, CNC machines, etc.) from guys closing out businesses or large home shops. He finds a lot of these on Craig's list.
He always has to inspect the machine, see it in operation, talk to the owner to see if he knows anything about it.
He always schedules an inspection visit making it clear he will bring no money.
If there is only one piece of equipment in the location or nothing is hooked up and running, he excuses himself and walks away most of the time.
There really is no index of stolen property, and even with serial numbers its hard to prove the provenance of these things.
These are largish sums of money, so they arrange electronic transfer from cell phones, paypal, or a trip to the bank together after he takes physical possession, usually with the machine already in the back of his truck.
There are lots of things it isn't reasonable to drag into a police station.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Saturday January 31 2015, @07:48PM
I buy my weed from craigslist, doing the transaction in a police station makes me feel safer!
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @08:27PM
The weed vending machines in a police station usually have the best selection.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday February 01 2015, @01:35AM
Meh! I live in Washington State.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @06:18AM
What is the percentage of fraudulent transactions vs total transactions on craigslist ? .. these kinda of places will always be misused by some people .. but whats the prevalence?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday February 01 2015, @10:32PM
Good question.
I suppose its pretty low. the friend of which I speak has never actually encountered any fraudulent big tool seller, but has walked away from hand tool sellers. Mostly because they didn't have the manuals and accessories.
I've never bought or sold anything on Craigs list myself.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @08:30PM
Hope you have better luck than Kristiana Coignard. [google.com]
17 Year-Old-Girl Shot Dead By Three Cops At Police Station
Video Of Killing Shows Cops Had Teen Subdued Before Officers Opened Fire [inquisitr.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 2, Informative) by gnuman on Saturday January 31 2015, @09:25PM
It's Texas. What do you expect?
It's a state where someone shot a neighbor’s gardener and ended up being not guilty of murder because gardener looked "suspicious", as in Mexican-looking.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by btendrich on Saturday January 31 2015, @11:48PM
Did you watch the video? Unless she was on drugs or something, this looks like suicide by cop more than anything else... If you charge a cop who has a gun drawn on you, it should be no surprise when he shoots.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @01:11AM
That's ridiculous. Police are supposed to be professionals who are capable of handling these situations rationally, rather than peeing themselves and unloading their gun when a mentally disturbed and unarmed child raises a hand at them. In this case, one of the policemen had already tackled her and subdued her once. There appears to be no reason why he could not have cuffed her and kept her under control from that point. But afterwards, failing that for whatever reason, having let her back to her feet, and with two more officers having arrived on the scene, surely the three of them together were capable of doing what the solo cop had done moments before without any backup. And failing that, even if we assume this little girl was Bruce Lee reincarnated and the three cops were getting their tails beat (which was pointedly NOT the case) - they had tasers. Yet at least two of the three, having so many other good options, chose to draw their weapons and end this little girls life.
There is no rational defense of their actions here - that was murder.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @01:41AM
Victim-blaming is not acceptable.
The trained, armed and armored officer of the law valued his own safety over the life of a 17 year old girl. Nothing more. He made the decision to end her life instead of taking the risk of harm from a 17 year old girl that he was able to over power twice already.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @10:08PM
You're right. Victim blaming isn't acceptable.
And, in this case, the Police were the ones being threatened and therefore THEY are the victims.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by doublerot13 on Sunday February 01 2015, @04:28AM
It is very OK to disagree with anyone, at any time, including LEOs.
It is not OK, to charge or present any violent threat to anyone. Ever.
If you are unarmed and feel that your life is in danger, run away asap.
If you endanger or threaten someone who has a gun, they will kill you or at least try really hard. That is called self defense.
I am not sure why any of this is news to anyone. Violence begets violence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @05:25PM
Trigger happy cops don't belong on the force[1] It's their frigging police station lobby - their home ground. If they can't even secure it vs some skinny girl with a knife without shooting her to death they're crap. She was alone in the room - no bystanders at easy reach, they could have sealed the area and then gone and got more suitable equipment AND a team to subdue her (send one guy first, take down if necessary with help of team). If she stabbed herself to death before anything happens that's her problem.
But no, they had just one guy go there, fail to subdue her (how the fuck did he fail to cuff her after smacking her down on the ground?) and then they keep screwing up till she's dead.
Maybe it's self-defense, and maybe even she and we are better off with her dead, but doesn't mean the cops handled the situation well or even properly.
The fact is the first guy went in and he didn't get shot at and she actually seemed to be talking to him, then he gets her on the ground, probably making her angry, and then for some stupid reason he lets her go and stand up so that he can shoot her?
I am a coward, but I don't pretend to be a policeman and shoot people just because I'm too scared to risk my life in the line of duty. It's stupid to take unnecessary risks, but that's why I said they should have backed off rather than sending just one incompetent cop in without backup being ready. Then try to talk it out with her and wait till they had more info and more suitable resources.
Fact is sometimes "normal people" get angry and they do stupid things, but if you give them some time to cool off, they stop doing stupid things and nobody needs to shoot them dead. So the cops handling things like this doesn't bode well for the "normal people".
[1] Cowards don't belong on the police force too they are a danger to others and to law enforcement. There are already too many cowardly cops around - just look at them saying they're scared that waze is letting people report their location: http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/01/27/0037206 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @10:05PM
being a resident of longview texas since 1985 i have had a few experiences with longview pd,and they are for the most part some of the most incompetant cops i have ever seen. it has become a haven for rookies needing to gain experience before getting a real cop job..now there are some really good ones there to ,but mostly young rookies that don't even know the laws they are supposed to be enforcing.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday January 31 2015, @11:08PM
or any type of exchange facilitated by Internet services
Barring bodily fluids, one assumes.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 01 2015, @01:48AM
Well livestock semen is traded and sold, so there's that.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday February 01 2015, @12:53PM
Hmm I think I'm detecting a subliminal message
... any type of exchange facilitated by Internet services ...
... help weed out ...
Did they legalize in that state yet? Just wondering.
Also I wonder how this works with civil forfeiture laws. So I sell a large machine tool for $1500 cash because only a very trusting soul (aka idiot) would take a personal check for that, and the cops instantly confiscate the cash.