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A comment on Making a Living Collecting Cans. Parent comment

Re:Making a Living Collecting Cans by runamok on Tuesday October 08, 2013 @04:34PM (#6517653)
I got shouted down in a reddit thread for suggesting that getting cops to arrest people that were scavenging for recyclables was not the best use of their time and our tax dollars.
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Re:Making a Living Collecting Cans by sliverstorm on Tuesday October 08, 2013 @06:06PM (#6518137)
On the other hand, do you want anybody who is interested to be able to dress up like a hobo and sift through your trash with impunity any time they feel like? Of course the actual hobos aren't interested in your old credit cards and such, but allowing that behavior is not without risks.
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Re:Making a Living Collecting Cans by Amadou on Tuesday October 08, 2013 @08:31PM (#6518787)
do you want anybody who is interested to be able to dress up like a hobo and sift through your trash with impunity any time they feel like?

As far as I know, that is perfectly legal throughout the USA. Certainly there is no warrant required for the police to do exactly that.

I've actually got a big problem with the police doing that without any judicial supervision, but if it is OK for them to do it carte blanche, then in a just society it must be OK for anyone else to do it too.

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Re:Making a Living Collecting Cans by steveklabnik on Tuesday October 08, 2013 @11:25PM (#6519237)
You arent even required to dress like a hobo for it to be legal! http://freegan.info/what-is-a-freegan/freegan-practices/urba...
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Re:Making a Living Collecting Cans by sliverstorm on Tuesday October 08, 2013 @11:32PM (#6519256)
Huh. I always thought it was illegal, much the same way opening someone's mail is illegal. I could be wrong though.
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Re:Making a Living Collecting Cans by steveklabnik on Thursday October 10, 2013 @04:35AM (#6526367)
The difference is that when you throw something away, you're indicating you don't want it any longer. Mail is something that is very explicitly for you only. Does that make sense?
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Re:Making a Living Collecting Cans by DanBC on Tuesday October 08, 2013 @06:47PM (#6518352)
Why aren't you shredding anything you put in the trash?
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Re:Making a Living Collecting Cans by sliverstorm on Tuesday October 08, 2013 @11:31PM (#6519255)
Because secret documents are the easy targets. I can't shred everything that goes into the bin, and secret documents aren't the only ones that give away information.
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Re:Making a Living Collecting Cans by judk on Tuesday October 08, 2013 @06:21PM (#6518229)
Indeed, the city should put people on payroll with oversight.
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