So this is happening.
A Washington Post story, written by Amy Marimow, is shedding light on a Washington D.C. police practice in which undercover officers recruit people they think are likely to commit armed robberies for high-risk sting operations.
That’s right. Washington D.C. police are fabricating crimes to arrest people that may fit the bill. Or in short, D.C. police are encouraging crime to make arrests.
Here’s how it goes down:
The scenarios dreamed up by law enforcement officials, some involving the lure of liquor and strip clubs, are designed to put violent offenders in jail and to address one of the District’s most persistent and dangerous crimes.
The practice mimics the controversial FBI operation that targeted would-be terrorists in the years after the 9/11 attacks. According to Marimow, similar sting operations conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have drawn rebukes in recent months from federal judges in California for “outrageous” government conduct.
In the past two years, the D.C. police stings have resulted in convictions of more than a dozen men in federal court. The tactic has overcome the few legal challenges it has faced in the District but has prompted harsh criticism. Defense attorneys and some legal experts have asked whether the police should be encouraging people to commit crimes they might not have otherwise committed by providing invented opportunities and, in some cases, guns and getaway cars.
Marimow writes:
Critics ask how law enforcement officials can distinguish between someone who is just “puffing” and someone who intends to carry out a crime. Law enforcement officials say they typically identify their targets through police sources and review their history before going after them.
“We have to feel comfortable and confident that these are bad guys, the guys we want,” said Cmdr. Melvin Scott of the narcotics and special investigations division, who oversees the undercover operations. “We’re not pressing these guys. They are boldly stating their job experience.”
Not surprisingly, this controversial practice has legal experts and defense attorneys concerned that law enforcement may be ensnaring people who would not have tried to commit a robbery without the government’s involvement.
“When you have the government offering guns or the getaway car and making it really attractive, you have to ask: Is this an opportunity that would have really come around in real life? Would this person have been able to put together this type of crime without government assistance?” said Katharine Tinto, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York who has studied undercover policing tactics.
The answer is probably no. But D.C. arrests tell a different story. Wonder what those numbers would look like if police weren’t bribing “would-be criminals” with liquor, drugs, and guns.
To read the rest of Marimow’s story, click here.
SOURCE: Washington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
