it is gross overkill to seize an entire coin collection based on a few coins purchased openly on a commercial website like eBay that allegedly came from an illicit source. The" little guy" simply does not have the financial resources to contest these seizures or the stomach to stand up to police intimidation that demands a collector surrender his entire collection to avoid possible prosecution.I’d like to ask the lawyer how it is in Washington. The police investigate somebody (let it be an unemployed German immigrant) for receiving four stolen items, the police have proof he bought them. They could be stolen cars, TVs, ipods, mobile phones, Old Master paintings, whatever. On a visit to the suspect's property, they find another fifty three items of the same nature there, and the person already under investigation is unable to present any documentation proving legal origins of those other items either. What is the Washington policeman to do? Is it really “police intimidation” for the investigating officer to impound these other items for the duration of the investigation? Or is it a policeman actually doing the job they are paid to do? Is it really "overkill" to conduct an investigation of crimes like theft and handling stolen goods thoughly? I wonder if Mr Tompa has ever been the victim of burglary or vehicle theft?
A blog commenting on various aspects of the private collecting and trade in archaeological artefacts today and their effect on the archaeological record.
Friday, 6 February 2009
US police would not fight culture crime?
Culture Property Observer, ACCG President (?) Peter Tompa tries to save face after accepting that if he’d checked out the facts of the case before posting his “German police run amok…” blog post, he’d have discovered that the story of the German investigations of collectors was not quite as the Californian coin dealer had led us all to believe (it’s what he is now calling a “different perspective”). So now he claims:
Where's my comment? I made a good point against your argument.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell first of all this is MY blog. Secondly, no you did not. You made some halfwit analogy about the police taking away MY car if my idiot brother "got on the wrong bike" while drunk and staying at my house.
ReplyDeleteThis shows you have not the foggiest idea what we are talking about here.
My car of course has a little hologrammed booklet with registration and roadworthiness data that I can (actually am obliged to) show a uniformed policeman asking to see it, it proves that the car is legally mine and I have gone through all the procedures required by my country's law.
Nobody here is championing the indiscriminate confiscation of "private property" as your fellow coin fondlers want to see this (with fascist overtones - see McGarigle's blog).
The German gentlemen in question were (it seems from what Nathan Elkins reports on his blog and the other information we have) actually caught by the police because they had been buying stolen property. This is despite the fact that other coin collectors in Germany manage to practice their hobby without breaking any laws.
Why should US collectors be so concerned that German law-breakers are reportedly facing consequences for their actions? [Actually I bet US collectors do not even know what the laws of Hessen regarding such matters actually say, funny the ACCG do not sem to want to tell you].
Do you think the local coin collectors who do not break any laws getting their stuff are supporting law-breaking collectors?
Do you think ethical coin collectors (and the public in general) in Germany support the thieves with metal detectors targetting local archaeological sites to sell the artefacts they dig out of them trashing them totally?
So, on whose side are the ACCG (and those like you that so eagerly follow the Pied Piper in condemning German police for investigating cases of stolen property)?
Are you on the side of the law abiding collectors in Germany, or any law-breaking ones? Which side? Hmmm. Seems quite a simple choice to me, not one I'd expect reasonably educated people over in the US to have too much trouble with.
Where is the original comment?
ReplyDeleteYou must be scared to argue fairly and openly.
You sound like Sean Hannity on Fox News, offering two inane positions as if the issues aren't more complex.
Your original comment went in the bin Bill as it missed the point totally and did not seem worth posting or answering.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you need reminding that this is not a forum, but a blog, my blog, in which the author (that's me) discusses issues which interest me in the manner I, as author, choose. It's not meant for "arguing", nor even defending what I say or think.
Nevertheless it is totally openly stated what I believe and why, I really cannot see that what you read on these pages would suggest that the author of these pages is in any way "scared" to say what he thinks about portable antiquity collecting, irresponsible collectors and heritage issues or subject those opinions to informed (or misinformed) scrutiny!
Thank you for your interest.