Graphic shows Jesse Snodgrass, High School student entrapped by confidence men
During the 1980’s, a few laws were changed to make entrapment legal in cases involving illegal drugs. The enforcement tactic has since expanded into many areas of law enforcement, and has become a standard practice among police forces.
The Republican push of the eighties that allowed cops to perform previously illegal acts of “entrapment” (a con game) is coming back to haunt us, just as it was then predicted it would by liberal pundits. Once again scare tactics were used to scare the public into going along with it “because drug dealers are coming for your kids."
Entrapment is when a cop offers a profit to someone for doing something illegal. Often, the offer is something the victim of the cop-confidence job would not have done without the cops’ encouragement. It is widely used in drug and prostitution cases (and others, of course) to 'pad the stats' of police officers who need arrests to justify promotions. It is the drug enforcement and vice cops version of the old Southern small town speed trap.
Even the word often used to describe the operations, "sting," is borrowed from con-man lingo.
Previously, the Supreme Court had held confidence game stings to be illegal because the police create the crime out of thin air, then prosecute those they con into doing the illegal acts.
That tactic is a staple of dictatorships. It is time to eliminate this blot on our democracy.