Rummaging in front of the neighbors -- why don't they care?
chaos:
Drakron, different places have different laws. It seems logical that garbage bins set out on the street would cease to be a person's property (they're throwing the stuff out, after all), but not all places will have the same laws. For example, some places outlaw dumpster diving while others don't. You really can't assume, just because the law in one area states that garbage is public property, that it will be that way everywhere. Different states in the US, and even different cities, all have their own separate laws about these sorts of things.
Edit to remove an extra "that."
morriganrant:
Quote from: Drakron on 2009 July 04, 03:33:45
Quote from: morriganrant on 2009 July 01, 20:34:53
I believe it depends on where you are in the US. I'm pretty certain that trash put out in front of your own house here is still your property until it is taken away.
As someone said, its public and that is why police does not need a warrant to search it.
http://wasteage.com/mag/waste_garbage_public_property/
Of course trash containers INSIDE your property/house are still your property ...
Although I'm having trouble finding information that explicitly states curbside savaging in my area is illegal, here is one other location that has a ordnance against it. There are a few others as well.
http://www.ci.santa-maria.ca.us/newsreleases/20080805.pdf
Drakron:
Quote from: chaos on 2009 July 04, 05:50:28
Drakron, different places have different laws.
No, they dont ...
Quote
In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police officers did not need a warrant to examine the contents of plastic garbage bags that a homeowner had placed at the curb [California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35]. The high court held that individuals could have no reasonable expectation of privacy in trash left for collection in an area accessible to the public.
As Redmon could not place his trash at curbside without violating the local ordinance, his "curb" for garbage pickup purposes was outside his garage on the shared driveway, the appeals court concluded. The path to his front door came near the garbage cans with no obstruction and was accessible by friends, guests, neighbors, solicitors, strangers, scavengers and other members of the public, the majority said.
"It takes little more than a look at the plat ... showing the Redmon location at the intersection of two city streets and the short common driveway-sidewalk arrangement with his neighbor to see how very publicly exposed and accessible Redmon left his garbage," the majority opinion said.
Separate concurring opinions by three judges mentioned "abandonment" as another reason to deny Fourth Amendment protection for garbage. Thus, if an individual customarily deposits his garbage in a receptacle and leaves it for pickup by trash collectors, "he has manifested an intent to abandon his refuse," which is "tantamount to 'throwing away' [an accepted and reasonable] subjective exception of privacy in it ...," a concurring opinion said.
Five judges joined in a dissenting opinion, asserting that trash was protected against warrantless searches because homeowners generally assume that the contents of garbage cans placed near their dwelling remain private property until the trash collectors cart the material away.
"It is tempting to suppose that the search of a garbage can could never violate [privacy rights] because the act of discarding something ... is a relinquishment of any interest in it," the dissent said. "But that answer ... would entitle the police to enter the home itself and rifle the trash cans ... found there."
Unless you are under the bizarre notion that the United States Supreme Court rulings do not count for the United States of America ... then again, you did not even brother to read what was in that link did you?
chaos:
Actually, I did, but I obviously missed that part. Mea culpa.
Mootilda:
Then again, the U.S. is not the entire world, which means that different places may still have different laws.
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