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Law enforcement seems, on the surface, like a pretty straightforward proposition. The legislature enacts laws designed to preserve peace and order in society and make sure that people don't wander off with each other's cars and such, and police and prosecutors chase down the folks who violate those laws and punish them accordingly. In theory. Recently, a disturbing trend is developing across the country: law enforcement agencies working hard not to catch criminals, but to create them. And it isn't as if there's a shortage of real lawbreakers out there to catch. In the state of Arizona alone, there are 59,000 unserved felony warrants. That's 59,000 cases in which crimes were committed, suspects were identified, and no one ever got around to arresting them. That's just felonies, and just one state. So you'd think that law enforcement officers would have enough to do. As it turns out, though, they've decided to take an easier approach to criminal prosecution—a sort of one-stop-shopping that allows them to create a criminal where none previously existed, arrest him or her on the spot and then, more often than not, wrestle a guilty plea out of the terrified "criminal" who never expected to find himself in this situation. Some recent examples: • In 2006, New York police left purses and wallets in department stores, watching to see whether shoppers picked them up and then arresting those who did. After a judge noted that people finding lost property had ten days to turn it in and dismissed the cases, additional instructions were added to the prosecution's handbook and the next year officers were back out in the stores and on the subway, leaving purses and wallets containing high-limit credit cards so that they could charge would-be thieves (or good Samaritans) with felonies this time around. They also planted iPods, bags containing game systems, and other expensive-but-portable items. • A Chicago man was arrested for soliciting a prostitute after an undercover policewoman flagged him down and he stopped thinking that she was having car trouble and needed assistance. This might have come down to a he said/she said situation and ended in the man's conviction except for one lucky break: his wife and adult daughter were in the car with him at the time, and it was actually his wife who initially spotted the woman and thought she might be in trouble. The debate may rage as to whether those arrested in these stings are innocent victims enticed by law enforcement or guilty parties who chose to act illegally, regardless of the fact that the circumstances were orchestrated. The bigger question, though, is whether testing people on the subway and walking through department stores and even driving down the street in their vehicles is the best use of taxpayer funds and law enforcement time and energy. Neither New York nor Chicago is running short on crime, nor on real-life criminals who act without any manufactured temptation. Perhaps these officers would do better to focus on crime prevention than crime creation.
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Comments (9)
  written by Houstonhotdeals, June 20, 2008
interesting article. Looks like the police thought of my topic before me.
 written by Nathan Hull, August 27, 2008
Just another example of a police state in action. We are slowly turning into a total prison planet. Gestapo like tactics by law officers are the norm. Tasering seems to be a new past time. What else can you say about the biggest GANG in America? To protect and serve....my ass!
 written by Joshua, August 27, 2008
Police are lazy and cowardly. They do not want to hunt down the nurderes, rapists and drug dealers. They would rather try to entrap innocent people in order to meet their quotas. The American prison/industrial complex makes alot of people alot of money. Many prisons are run by private corporations who profit not only from the taxpayer money they receive, but also from the inmates' labor. Of course they want all the inmates they can get. This country is going the way of nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Communist Russia.
 written by lizz, August 27, 2008
first of all let me state, i am a police fearing american who smokes pot and generally has a distrust for the law.
but seriously, if there were no cops or law or anything there would be alot more rapists and murderers. and really, america is facist. i want to stic kyou in nazi germany about 1940 ad watch you s**t your pants.
 written by kybanas, August 27, 2008
yeah cops are dicks and all but calling the US fascist is totally inappropriate. Imperialist, power-drunk, hypocritical, puritanical, paranoid, paternalistic, occasionally genocidal, reactionary: these are all superior words for describing this country. Fascism refers to a specific type of government and certainly does not refer to the soullessly capitalistic sham democracy under which we live. Get your terms right!
 written by THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER, August 29, 2008
This "law-enforcement growth industry is nothing more than a business and customer relationship. Like any business, this industry needs more and more customers to continue to grow and prosper, in order to justify its existence and size to the people, in order to obtain more funds to further that growth. The cycle goes something like this:
1. "We ought to have more laws." 2. The executive proposes new statutes to the legislature. 3. The legislature passes those statutes, and creates a criminal act where there was none before (i.e., eating bananas on Sunday). 4. The executive branch now has more statutes to enforce, and therefore needs more employees to enforce them. 5. The executive appeals to the legislature for more funds, due to the increasing crime rate caused by these legislated crimes. 6. Funds are made available, and more employees are hired. 7. More employees must now justify their existence, and therefore, must find (or entrap) more "customers" into committing these so-called crimes. 8. "We ought to have more laws." 9. Etc. "The best antidote for crime is Justice. The irony we often fail to appreciate is that the more Justice people enjoy, the fewer crimes they commit. Crime is the natural offspring of an unjust society." Gerry Spence "With Justice For None" p.124 In the battle for Liberty, THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/IO.html "Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation ... It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." ~ Robert F. Kennedy
 written by FreedomFighter, October 11, 2008
I've seen and been through much with local police stalking and setting up people. Repeatedly, they had no cause, no reason to arrest, so started creating crimes. Meanwhile, people were experiencing personal and property crimes daily. Turned out it was the police trying to take people's property. Physical assaults and cover-ups by charging innocent citizens with the very actions the police commit, including violent felonies, have become a state pastime here. And don't expect help from ANY police department. Excellent police officers who report the illegal activities of their comrades are only reprimanded and told to look the other way if they want to keep their job, or worse. Many injustices thrive throughout the judicial system as well. Most Judges know that if they want to keep their positions they must back all officers' charges and testimony. And some Court Judges are so corrupt and biased that they should be removed, just like the officers who are in violation of "serve and protect". The real pity is if some have actual videos of police assaults and their other illegal behaviors, how many other innocent citizens are being tortured? And I'm aware of some who have had their cameras and tapes taken, never to be returned, while officers falsely charge the person to further retaliate. The sad fact is that these have no legal recourse when no cameras are rolling. No officer should ever approach a woman at night on a back county road without the camera rolling. It protects both officer and citizen. But in any instance of which I am aware,it would totally eradicate the citizens charges and further provide grounds of the cops' illegal actions, instead of the professional allowance officers receive when they have no tape--the benefit of the doubt. Some people are being set up right and left and are being treated as if they have no rights in the matter. To ensure that no jury will determine the defendant is innocent(if the defendant is actually allowed an appeal or a jury)the police will slander these throughout the community long before trial. All of us need to unite, demanding justice.
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