Originally Posted By: SuperDave456
Sounds like that Police man has himself an awesome knife collection!
Are they allowed to take your personal property without a receipt?
They take your knife and take a picture of your ID and then what?
Do you get placed in their database?
What is their due process?
Lets explain how it works in the real world.
Police man is doing his job. Yeah, you and I can agree that taking pocket knives from seemingly law abiding folks for no apparent reason is utter, ridiculous horse dung. Knives of those kind are illegal in NYC, and the officer is doing his job by confiscating them. Right or wrong, it's the law, and the citizens expect officers to enforce the laws that are on the books.
Option A: Officer confiscated the illegal knife, advises you it's illegal, sends you on your way, and than throws the knife in the confiscated knife bin back at headquarters. No report, no arrest, no property receipt, no fine. The fine essentially turns out to to be the cost of the lost knife and a talking to by a police officer.
Option B: OP throws a temper tantrum and demands that his property not be seized without due process. Also demands to receive a property receipt for his sized knife. Since the OP insists that all proper protocols and legalities be followed, he gets his property receipt for the seized knife. He also gets handcuffed, brought back to the station, charged with carrying a concealed weapon, faces a magistrate, has to post a $1000 bail, goes to court about 7 times over the course of the next year, pleads no contest to the charges and is fined $500 and placed on 12 months of probation. OP also loses his knife and it never gets returned.
Would you rather go with option A or option B?
The cop was just doing his job. He also realized that he had better things to do and to look for than to arrest the OP and charge him with carrying a concealed weapon, so he confiscated the knife and let him go.
Interestingly, I am good friends with a retired NYC police officer. He advised me that the officers got really good at spotting knives and guns and typically confiscated about 2 or 3 knives per day. Just as the OP was treated, no reports were written, no property receipts were given, no one was arrested, no fines were levied. They deposited the knives in a huge knife bin back at the station.