Lazen 
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Am thinking of paying The States a working holiday that would involve some casual
dumpster diving for metals and other reuseables but am wondering what this would be like?
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You might need a work visa.
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Most places in England are 'laid back'about it apart from the odd exception.
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The US is very large and culturally diverse. You can't generalize. Customs and attitudes vary widely from place to place.
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The majority of people have this concept of bins as nasty dirty places where nothing
of any possible value would be found.
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Seagulls, Crows, Raccoons & black bears paw through the trash cans here. They leave a helluva mess. The raccoons & bears can be especially confrontational when you try to drive them off so there's always that instinctive thing to shoot them. On the other hand ... it's a gentler society in this part of the country. Cruelty to animals is frowned upon. There's a realization that those critters are just doin' the best they can to survive. They're no different than the rest of us. Taking any life is always the last resort ... not the first response.
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Would I be at risk of armed response violence or extreme reactions out of proportion
to the event?
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Instead of being a slave to your emotions and irrational fears ... use your noggin' and reason things through. People are people wherever you go in the world. Human nature is fairly constant. Has been all throughout history. What's the first commandment ?
In a nutshell .... armed response ??? Really ???? Common sense should tell you that this is not the way these things usually go down. There's generally an escalation of tensions leading up to a violent event. Once you understand that it takes two to make a fight ... you realize that you have much more control over the situation than you ever would have imagined.
Dude ... grow a pair.
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Are Citizens and Businsses likely to be neutral or open to 'vagrants'diving their stuff and just 'shoo
away'or is it a case of making a citizens arrest and summoning the cops?
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Again .... it varies widely. I never known of a citizen's arrest but people do fall into the habit of calling the cops to deal with inconsequential matters that they should be dealing with themselves. It seems to happen more in the city where the police are more readily available.
The nearest police station in this area is 40 miles away so we tend to deal with the petty things ourselves. For example: My wife works as a clerk at a local grocery store. She's dealt with armed men on a couple of different occasions over the years. One ... she and her friends just laughed at because he was just an insecure coward and they all knew it. The other was a druggie that was behaving oddly so she send him on about his business and informed the sheriff so that he could do a follow up investigation.
One of the county sheriff's stopped in for gas awhile back and we got to talking. He said that the vast majority of his calls come because somebody is having a bad day. It's more car wrecks and domestic dispute situations. What criminal behavior that there is ... is generally related to drug and alcohol abuse.
In a nutshell ... take whatever you see in the British media with a grain of salt. It's not like you would be dumpster diving in war zone here in the states.
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