FirstFreedom
Moderator
JuanCarlos
Amen & wellsaid and all that. Certainly these guys should be let go if they don't have more on them than that (like to sightsee at bridges, like to buy phones in quantity at Walmarts across the country, and names sound middle eastern). BUT....
A couple counterpoints to consider - I don't know - I'm just throwing this out there:
I know a little bit about business, and it seems strange to me....if it's profitable to break up tracfones into parts and sell their parts for profits, why don't the makers of the phones just sell those parts themselves, and keep that profit to themselves? Likewise, if it's profitable to buy them at FULL RETAIL and resell them to the little guy, why don't some larger companies do this? And why on earth wouldn't the small cellular shops or even the average joe off of the streets just GO TO Walmart, for cryinoutloud? They are basically everywhere now - not hard to find.
And it's perfectly conceivable isn't it, that if you were exploding one IED, you would only need one cellphone...BUT, to take down a HUGE structure such as a bridge like the Mackinac, it would indeed take hundreds to thousands of small, well-placed (seperate) IEDs, just like bringing down a building by a demolition contractor takes a LOT of little explosions to do it right.
And also, someone implied that people who sell all of this type of crap on ebay get it from somewhere, and where do you think that somewhere is - Walmart and the like. Well, I don't know, but Idonthinso. I think more likely they are bought in bulk like CDNN buys guns, when they are highly discounted. Or stolen off trucks by the mafia, or anything but having been bought at full retail - just makes no sense. Buyers are stupid but not THAT stupid! I can see getting away with making a profit on items from stores that are specialized in a product, and only found in one or a few places (for example, if someone bought guns at the CMP and put them on ebay, marking them up). But c'mon, buying crap from walmart with sales tax, and then taking time to put it on ebay at a profit, and make your buyers pay shipping? Nah, you cannot make a profit like that, surely....
I think more likely than not, there are answers to these questions, and the guys are completely innocent, but what about these unanswered questions?
and lookit, Juan Carlos is not saying rough up the grandmothers - he saying don't rough up anyone unless and until there is evidence of a CRIME, or a plan to commit a crime. Buying phones ain't evidence of a plan to commit a crime, without much, much more. They have a little more, looking at bridges, traveling, but in light of their explanations, it ain't nearly enough to actually charge and book them, in my opinion. Watch, yes, definitely; charge, detain, and set three quarters of a million bond, not a chance. It goes back to the idea of probably cause vs. reasonable suspicion of a crime. Here we DO have reasonable suspicion. That's enough to QUESTION them and WATCH them. It's not probably cause, and thus not enough to arrest & charge them.
Amen & wellsaid and all that. Certainly these guys should be let go if they don't have more on them than that (like to sightsee at bridges, like to buy phones in quantity at Walmarts across the country, and names sound middle eastern). BUT....
A couple counterpoints to consider - I don't know - I'm just throwing this out there:
I know a little bit about business, and it seems strange to me....if it's profitable to break up tracfones into parts and sell their parts for profits, why don't the makers of the phones just sell those parts themselves, and keep that profit to themselves? Likewise, if it's profitable to buy them at FULL RETAIL and resell them to the little guy, why don't some larger companies do this? And why on earth wouldn't the small cellular shops or even the average joe off of the streets just GO TO Walmart, for cryinoutloud? They are basically everywhere now - not hard to find.
And it's perfectly conceivable isn't it, that if you were exploding one IED, you would only need one cellphone...BUT, to take down a HUGE structure such as a bridge like the Mackinac, it would indeed take hundreds to thousands of small, well-placed (seperate) IEDs, just like bringing down a building by a demolition contractor takes a LOT of little explosions to do it right.
And also, someone implied that people who sell all of this type of crap on ebay get it from somewhere, and where do you think that somewhere is - Walmart and the like. Well, I don't know, but Idonthinso. I think more likely they are bought in bulk like CDNN buys guns, when they are highly discounted. Or stolen off trucks by the mafia, or anything but having been bought at full retail - just makes no sense. Buyers are stupid but not THAT stupid! I can see getting away with making a profit on items from stores that are specialized in a product, and only found in one or a few places (for example, if someone bought guns at the CMP and put them on ebay, marking them up). But c'mon, buying crap from walmart with sales tax, and then taking time to put it on ebay at a profit, and make your buyers pay shipping? Nah, you cannot make a profit like that, surely....
I think more likely than not, there are answers to these questions, and the guys are completely innocent, but what about these unanswered questions?
and lookit, Juan Carlos is not saying rough up the grandmothers - he saying don't rough up anyone unless and until there is evidence of a CRIME, or a plan to commit a crime. Buying phones ain't evidence of a plan to commit a crime, without much, much more. They have a little more, looking at bridges, traveling, but in light of their explanations, it ain't nearly enough to actually charge and book them, in my opinion. Watch, yes, definitely; charge, detain, and set three quarters of a million bond, not a chance. It goes back to the idea of probably cause vs. reasonable suspicion of a crime. Here we DO have reasonable suspicion. That's enough to QUESTION them and WATCH them. It's not probably cause, and thus not enough to arrest & charge them.