OMG- Please take 1 min. and look at this regarding police sting tactics. Beyond disgusting:

[Poll_Blind]

In short, police set up an elaborate "sting" operation to see if anyone would take some bait money left in a car.

Car pulls up right in front of a woman's house, guy gets out and runs leaving the car doors open. A police car pulls up behind it and police officers jump out yelling "Stop, police!" and make chase. The woman's daughter goes over to a car, doors open, with what appears to be money inside. She calls her mother over.

They haven't touched the money or anything, they're just looking into the car to see what was in it and, apparently, never even reached into the car or anything like that.

Apparently that's too much because as the mother arrives at the side of her daughter, another police car pulls up and arrests the mother and daughter for petty larceny and possession of stolen property.

The entire event...was a sting.

The full article is here:
Take the Bait? NYPD Anti-Theft Tactics Criticized

It's a two page article and gets more into the details of her alleged "crime" on the second page.

This is an example of a police force turning from a protector of citizens to preying on them. It is very, very troubling because most citizens do not have the resources to fight these charges.

Citizens are turned into a commodity to harvest fines from...by any means necessary.

PB

[ZombieHorde]

1. Years ago a bunch of police officers went on strike here in Montana, and you know what happened?

Nothing. Life just went on as normal, and there wasn't any terrible crime sprees, or anything like that.

[Poll_Blind]

2. IMO, that wouldn't be the case everywhere. Where I live, for instance, there's...

...quite a bit of petty crime that happens downtown and, sometimes, even out where I live. But the main thing is when police start looking for ways to turn otherwise honest citizens into criminals. Then it becomes scary.

PB

[RKP5637]

7. Frankly, this country could do well with a hell of a lot less cops, prisons and laws. And to

examine what constitutes a crime. As my father used to say with a background in law ... "there are too many damn laws in the US. Most of them should be automatically repealed after 10 years. Our laws create aberrant behavior by turning people into hardened criminals."

And, often, laws are created to feed the corporate profit machine ... and by others 'cause they love their authoritarian power.

[retired rooster]

29. As a former police officer and

a college professor in Criminal Justice, I couldn't agree more with you. I preached for many year if you want to lower crime then fire half the policemen. Seriously, the more cops you have the more arrest will be made and at the end of the year everyone will point to the numbers and say "look how much crime has gone up". Answer, hire more cops and the cycle repeats. At some point the police start making stupid arrest to justify their funding. Every week I study the arrest report and it amazing me the things people get arrested for.. police have gone from simple peace keepers to aggressive police work. Someday the bad guys will fight back and the revolution will begin.
STOP THE DAMNED DRUG WAR AND MANDATORY SENTENCING.

[Purplehazed]

31. Well said.....

Reading the local police logs in my area makes me feel glad to have grown up long ago. Young folks getting arrested and subject to the legal system is setting them up for problems later in life. Criminal records for things that were once considered youthful indiscretions definitely has an effect on their ability to be employed.

Is calling the parents to come and pick there kids up that much of an anachronism.

[TheMadMonk]

8. Probably because they still responded to murders and other crimes of violence.

In my experience, police strikes are generally limited to not doing paperwork, and refusing to serve warrants. Not turning out for burglaries - offender not on premesis, is a wash since according to most here, cops stopped doing that altogether, many years ago.

[Iggo]

3. Yay, Cops!

They're the best!

[retired rooster]

30. unhuh..

..Ask Rodney King

[arcane1]

4. To paraphrase Voltaire: if crime does not exist, it will become necessary to invent it

"To protect and serve" my ass!

[Poll_Blind]

6. Word to Voltaire. Because when you have what appear to be 4-5 police on a sting like this...

...then it's clearly out of the realm of individual officer conduct and part of a planned, tactic. And that means that the rot has already taken root deep enough in the department that officers are being assigned to this sort of thing.

PB

[Logical]

5. Google Radley Balko for more stories like this. Police are out of control. n-t

[MattBaggins]

9. Now what would happen if citizens set up stings to catch corrupt cops

How fast would those civilians end up in jail.

[Poll_Blind]

10. Undoubtedly. nt

PB

[zbdent]

11. Ever notice that, if you accuse cops of being corrupt, you are a "liberal-cop killer apologist

who wants society to go into chaos" (paraphrased).

And when cops are exposed as corrupt? Guess what? Those cops are "union" communist buddies of Obama/Dem-Flavor-Of-The-Moment.

At least, according to the "liberally-biased media" ...

[99Forever]

12. Wall Street robs us blind...

... and War Criminals get rewarded with million$ and this is what our "police" spend their time doing.

[TheMadMonk]

13. Care to mention that she was ultimately cleared, and the cops got rapped...

...over the knuckles on this.

As a matter of fact, I agree with you what was done here was way over the top.

I also note that according to the article, the police have modified their methods to makes sure that offenders noww have to demostrate a clear intent to commit a crime.

[Poll_Blind]

14. Yes, but also note the prosecutor went forward with charges which, along with...

...the number of police assigned to such a "sting", gives all appearances of being a racket. If it weren't for the judge, and the judge alone, this thing would likely have ended in a plea.

That's a gnat's whisker from the police getting away with it.

That the prosecutors wouldn't appeal indicates they and the cops were seeing if they could essentially get away with a frame.

Not all law enforcement are like this in my opinion. And certainly (I hope) not all law enforcement departments (which is germane to this particular case, because of the level of organization the "sting" required) would go along with this, either.

But for those that do, it could be an extremely effective way to harvest cash.

PB

[awoke_in_2003]

17. They shouldnt have their jobs...

they are either too incompetent to do it, or they are corrupt and targeting people. My bet is they are pigs of the second variety.

[Poll_Blind]

18. Yeah, I don't see it as a matter of incompetency either. Because of the number of officers...

....involved, and the participation of the prosecutor, it really seems as though this is straightforward corruption or whatever the most appropriate term is.

PB

[sabrina 1]

15. Disgusting, and the city will have to pay yet another huge amount of money when the woman

sues. The NYPD is costiing the city of NY way more than they are worth.

Bloomberg's army!! Working for the 1%! They have disgraced themselves so many times that in any decent society the whole operation would have been dismantled and restructured as an actual civil police department long ago.

[Poll_Blind]

16. The thing I don't get (really!) is that not only in the U.S. is New York perceived to...

...be a sort of bastion of Liberality but certainly when I was in Europe, there was an incredible fixation on New York as this mecca of meccas. People in London and Paris used to always ask if I'd been to New York City and sort of get the glazed, dreamy look in their eyes that I suppose I would talking about London or Paris.

Maybe that's just a grass-is-always-greener thing, but it's amazing how much the reality differs from the impression.

PB

[L0oniX]

21. Invite them to take a tour of the underground doityourself homeless shelters...

during the winter.

[formercia]

23. See how the Mole People live.

..and they can take home one of the resident, Cat-sized Rats for a pet. The Rats are friendlier than the Transit Police.

[polly7]

19. Ugh. What kind of mentality does it take to think up something so pathetic? nt.

[localroger]

20. The big problem is they didn't wait for her to steal the money

They probably were worried that she was going to do something that would blow their little overcomplicated sting operation, like trying to report the money, and jumped on her before her intentions could be known.

[L0oniX]

22. Stop and frisk ...doesn't wait for a specific crime either. n/t

[lexw]

24. There was a cable show out a couple years ago...

about police placing expensive cars in bad neighborhoods with the door open and the keys in them.
The police watch, if someone steals it, they make chase and arrest.

I don't see why this is legal???
Sux.

Edited:
I believe it's this one: http://www.aetv.com/jacked/

[SamKnause]

25. Arrests

We need to inquire as to what the ultimate goal is ?

We are currently at 2.3 million incarcerated.

Maybe they are shooting for 10 million ?

Have to keep those bank accounts filled and prisons and jails rake in the money.

This country is an embarrassing corrupt police state !!!

[WillyT]

26. K & R !!!

[Dawson Leery]

27. Police and their unions need to be reigned in.

[SheilaT]

28. What I'm in awe of with this operation is that

apparently there is so little crime being done spontaneously that the police needed to generate some.

Maybe instead of trying to drum up a little more criminal activity, the police could take some vacation days.

This reminds me a lot of how so many terrorist plots are actually set up by undercover perpetrators, who recruit likely "terrorists" and suggest the entire supposed terrorist operation that the unfortunate SOB who'd been talked into getting involved in, is now arrested for.

[Nevernose]

35. Or maybe try, you know, SOVLING something?

These days for most property crimes, the police just throw their hands in the air and say, "But it's too hard!"

[woo me with science]

32. Horrifying.

This while the powers-that-be are using government to build an entire industry that depends on the arrest and imprisonment of more and more of us just to sustain itself.

Militarization of our police. Tactics like this.

Universal surveillance.

We are living in very disturbing times.

[Poll_Blind]

33. Exactly. It's like an extension of the for-profit prison industry.

Literally, an incentive to make criminals out of citizens and then cage them for profit.

Like, of all the crazy things going on in the world right now, that going on in the United States gives a person quite a bit to think about.

PB

[woo me with science]

37. +1

[Nevernose]

34. I've seen similarly egregious stings in Vegas

The first one made some news. They went to a "bad" neighborhood and changed the timing on a pedestrian crosswalk to make it impossible for anyone other than an Olympic athlete to cross the street on time, then detained -- and searched -- every single person who crossed the street. They did the stop a couple of blocks down, so other "jaywalkers" couldn't see. Turns out they pulled this only a block off a casino district, so a lot of well-heeled and connected tourists got caught up in it.

The second one involved some stolen bicycles. The undercover a rolled up in a blue van and tried to sell us some bicycles. I wasn't interested, but my buddy stayed to negotiate. He asked, "Is this stolen? Because I don't want to buy a stolen bike." He asked this two or three times. Guess who was arrested for possession of stolen property as soon as he paid the guy? The same blue van rolled up to me in the same parking lot on me not two weeks later and tried to sell speakers to me. I've must've spent thirty minutes negotiating and inspecting before saying, "Fuck you, cops."

Never saw that blue van again.

[Poll_Blind]

36. Dude, that's crazy- especially the bicycle one. How the hell would you know if...

...it was stolen or not?



PB