Explain this

[purple72]

I have a question pertaining to a show I saw recently. Here is the breakdown:

Undercover officers were selling crack at a known drug location. After the bad guys came up and made a purchase, they pulled the cars over around the corner, searched the vehicle, and busted the driver for purchase & possession.

Here is what I don't get. If LE had to break the law in order to get the bad guy to break the law, how is that right? Because, isn't distribution against the law? So didn't LE break the law FIRST to start this whole thing.

It makes no sense to me, and hopefully someone can explain how it works.

 

[Scutter01]

It makes no sense to me, and hopefully someone can explain how it works.

It was a TV show.

 

[purple72]

So that's not how it works in real life?

 

[LCPer]

Some folks have trouble differentiating between TV shows and REAL life.

 

[level.eleven]

Happens all the time with prostitution; it seems to pop every third episode of COPS and you read about it in the papers every few months. I would only assume it happens with drugs. I believe the fancy word for it is "sting". Send a female officer out to the corner, dressed for the role. Have her offer sex to guys for money. Guess what. Some guys say yes, especially if you ask enough. Of course a few of the guys are coming to the area looking for sex, so the job is a little easier. Have the paddy wagon waiting around the corner, profit.

 

[purple72]

Yes, the prostitution "sting" is the same type of scenerio. What I'm getting at is, how is this not entrapment? I mean, if I break the law to get you to break the law, am I not also breaking the law?

 

[Doug]

I could be wrong, but...

I think the police just frequent the area and try to look like dealers and prostitutes. The "victims" of the sting have to specifically ask for drugs, sex, etc. without it being specifically offered.
Whether or not it always happens that way...

Requesting LEO input.

Doug

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

Perhaps you don't really know what "entrapment" is?

Entrapment is more of a forcing someone to do something that they'd not normally do.

Entrapment is NOT offering an opportunity for them to do something they normally do and then bust them for it when they voluntarily act.

-J-

 

[sianbrimons]

well i'm no LEO, but my input is simple:

smoking crack is stupid, and if you're stupid enough to buy it from a cop, you're stupid enough to go to jail for it, and one who smokes crack belongs in jail, because they're stupid...

 

[Ashkelon]

Yep. That is how it can work in real life. Handled many cases with the same M.O. Don't like it and most departments narc officers try to target the dealers not the addicts but not uncommon for officers in a slow period to sting a user in order to get fresh intel. Just how the game is played. Sad but true.

 

[BE Mike]

If you stay away from illegal drugs and those who use and sell them, you will never have to worry about all the nuances of the law. One thing; if any lawyer who represents people who buy illegal drugs thinks that he has a "snowball's" chance of getting his client off because the "situation" was illegally contrived, he'll do so in a New York minute.

 

[hogwild]

i like the show were they leave a car to steel. some people are just dumb

 

[CountryBoy19]

If you stay away from illegal drugs and those who use and sell them, you will never have to worry about all the nuances of the law. One thing; if any lawyer who represents people who buy illegal drugs thinks that he has a "snowball's" chance of getting his client off because the "situation" was illegally contrived, he'll do so in a New York minute.

I agree, but thats not really what the OP is asking about' its not just drugs that this pertains to.

Put the entrapment aspect aside because they don't normally "entrap" them. The OPs question is valid in the aspect of, aren't the police officers just as guilty of committing a crime (possession, distribution etc) as the people they're conducting the sting on?

i like the show were they leave a car to steel. some people are just dumb

I do too. I really love it when they pull the guy over and he says, "Awe man, I just got outta jail for stealing cars, now you're gonna take me back?" Duh, didn't you pick up on that fact the first time?

 

[singlestacksig]

just about every law has an exclusion for "officers carring out their duty"

so, no selling drugs as part of an official act is not a crime.

 

[groovatron]

Yes, the prostitution "sting" is the same type of scenerio. What I'm getting at is, how is this not entrapment? I mean, if I break the law to get you to break the law, am I not also breaking the law?

Not if your a LEO.......Didn't you know that they have diplomatic immunity?