I've never liked liquor and tobacco stings. You know, when police send an under-age kid into a store to purchase alcohol or tobacco.
Supposedly the police "train" the perpetrator and then accompany him to the store(s) to be checked. The cop is to look at the kid's ID and verify he is not old enough to purchase legally whatever he is being sent into the store to purchase, and then the cop sends him in. The cop waits outside. If the kid is able to purchase the alcohol or tobacco, he does so and comes out of the store with it.
Then the cop enters the store and arrests the sales clerk.
I've always considered this as entrapment, but tonight I got to thinking about conspiracy. How is it legal to entice an under-age person to purchase alcohol or tobacco? Under what circumstance, if any, is it legal to give the kid money and send him into a store to purchase merchandise that he is not legally old enough to purchase?
Is it okay to break the law, in order to enforce the law? I don't think so!
What if the clerk, manager or owner of the store tried to press charges against the kid and the cop, and the police department, and the City? Is it contributing to the delinquency of a minor to entice, persuade or invite a kid to commit an illegal act? How do police get their "willing" participants in these schemes?
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
9 comments:
You have got to be kidding.
Gus, really, I am concerned for your mental stability. please seek medical assistance. This is not a poke at you. I am totally serious.
Thanks for your concern, billy. I checked my meds, and I have plenty left.
Which part of my objection do you oppose? The training of an under-age kid to break the law? The conspiracy angle?
If the police gain knowledge that a store is actively selling alcohol or tobacco illegally, great; go get 'em. But to send a kid in at 5:15PM on a Friday to "test" a clerk during a high-volume, busy sales period? Not okay.
And, yes, I understand that the clerks are never to sell to an under-age kid.
Gus, this tactic and all police tactics such as this, yes, may appear to be entrapment, but, this is not the case in the eyes of the Federal Gov. US DOJ.
Here is how the FBI sees it. I will use they word "They" meaning FBI.
They believe they are not 'inducing entrapment' because they are just placing forth a scenario in which the 'target' would engage anyway.
Meaning, it does not matter what 'they' are placing before a 'target' of any investigation, because in 'real life' day to day behavior of said target, he/she would have committed the crime anyway.
The courts have not stated 'stings' of any kind are entrapment and the FBI remains steadfast in its logic.
Bounty Hunter is correct.
Without the use of undercover buys many of the laws would not be enforced. Gawd help the citizens if there is ever a Sheriff Gussy. This is basic Intro to Law Enforcement 101.
Being 'entrapped' is when a person is INDUCED or PERSUADED by law enforcement officers or their agents to commit a crime that the person had no intent or desire to commit; To be entrapment there must be encouragement and persuasion.
These persons were not encouraged or persuaded. They were only offered the opportunity. The law is clear that they must not sell to under age and must check ages. There is no entrapment where a person is ready and willing to break the law and the Government agents merely provide what appears to be a favorable opportunity for the person to commit the crime.
I don’t even want to get into your thoughts on catching child predators………
Nota, no problem with discussing the catching of child predators.
Is it right for a male cop (or even a female cop) to pose as a 14-year-old and lure a person into a net by sexually-provocative statements and fake photos? I mean, without disclosing the false age.
Notawannabe says, "Without the use of undercover buys many of the laws would not be enforced."
And what's not to love about that?
Gus the problem that you missed here, and I am surprised that you did, is that it is NOT that the police are making a minor violate the law ...
THE PROBLEM is that the police who are charged with enforcing the law, are creating the violations of that law.
It would be like if I was in charge of ridding your house of cockroaches--and I cultivated and raised them and placed them at your home .... SO I WOULD HAVE A JOB...
You left me wondering and puzzled if you are actucally against the police posing as 14 year olds to catch these perverts. I knew you were half a bubble off, but now I'm convinced. Let me see, old man lives alone, blogs about nonsense, dislikes nearly everything. Next I'll hear there are 20 cats in your apartment.
Meow... x 20.
Not a "sting" per se... you're supposed to Card people. I got a foot in da grave and the other on a banana peel and I still have to show my ID at many a gas station when I'm buying my 40 ouncer. I dont mind; they're doing their job and I have my "empty" billfold out anyway so it takes 3 seconds.
But, remember, ts easier for a kid to buy liquor than it is for an adult to buy Sudafed at Walmart! DOH!
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