>
> On Mon, 12 Feb 2001 kallen3@icircus.net wrote:
>
> > My understanding is no criminal law up to that moment. But if insist that
> > you stop then in some states that is considered the right of the merchant
> > and is written into a law. I'm not sure if that applies to Arizona but in
> > Arizona there is a law about Defrauding an Inn Keeper which is a blanket
> > law under which many different situations are prosecuted (refusal to pay
> > for a service or product is one in which I had to use that law). Also as
> > someone else touched upon there is a citzen's arrest. And no the police
> > won't arrest you if it proves wrong (unless you place the person you are
> > trying to arrest in physical jeopardy such as assualting them) BUT you do
> > open yourself up to a civil suit if you are wrong.
>
> The mere act of refusing to stop to be searched would not be the act of
> defrauding.
>
No it doesn't, but it is a suspicious act (after all if you didn't have
anything to hide you would stop wouldn't you? And you also use postcards
for personal letters through the US Mail because you don't have anything
to hide) and the business would be in their legal right to either detain
you or have you detained to prevent the possibilty that you may be
attemtping to defraud them. Again when you enter the store you give tacit
consent for the search of packages.
(text/plain)