Why is entrapment illegal?

[CCS]

Kid hired by cops walks into a 7-Eleven and swears he is 21 but forgot his ID at home. Clerk sells it to him. Cops arrest clerk.

This is called entrapment and is illegal. Cops can send people to ask for purchases, but can't lie or do other stuff to convince the person they are not cops.

Why is this illegal? Because it is so effective, and people are affraid that entrapment will be used to punish victimless crimes, which would be tyranny? I think entrapment should be legalized for catching certain types of criminals that we all agree are bad. Anyone know why entrapment is illegal? It would be very effective at getting rid of drug problems. I know some libertarians would really that though.

 

[blueshard]

Entrapment would absolutely suck at getting rid of drug problems.

What are we gonna do, arrest massive amounts of people through entrapment and put them in prison, similar to what the war on drugs has done? That doesn't fix the problem, it treats the symptoms.

But I am digressing from the topic here. Carry on.

I don't know the reasons for which entrapment is illegal, but I sense it has something to do with America being an "open society" with transparency.

It is important to note that America is actually a closing society. It is also important to say when the masses spend all of their time bickering about the differences between McCain and Obama, they are actually being distracted from the fact that they are losing their rights and their country is being taken away from them. Obama cannot save our country. If he is in office, it is not like he is going to be able to get anything done. Same goes for Mccain. This country is simply way too fucked. The fall of the US economy is an expected occurance and is being made worse by the bailout.

 

[Old Baldy]

Because you don't know if they would have a committed a crime of their own volition IMHO.

 

[PersonGuy]

CCS the example you posted above is not entrapment. Entrapment would be a law enforcement officer compelling the defendant to commit a crime he would otherwise not commit. In this example the clerk would have clearly sold the alcohol to the underage decoy whether or not the police were present. Entrapment is a heavily debated topic in criminal justice and is almost impossible to prove on the part of the defendant and therefore rarely used as a defense.

 

[goata007]

Kid hired by cops walks into a 7-Eleven and swears he is 21 but forgot his ID at home. Clerk sells it to him. Cops arrest clerk.

This Should be Illegal. We have no idea what the kid looked like, I have been through several sting operations myself. However, in my case, both kids actually looked like 14-16 year olds and were asking for cigarattes Without ID and I said no - they didn't insist and just went away.

At the same time, I have also had to deal with people who look borderline (can't tell if they are 18 or not) and they don't have ID. let me tell you that, they don't mind yelling at you and taking out their piss on you especially if they go to the car and actually bring their ID which proofs they are of legal age. I know I was right to ask for an ID, but when you have to deal with customers all day, it Does get quite annoying if every few customers, you have to deal with an ID issue and get yelled at. And I used to work for a decent grocery store, I can only imagine the people, that 7-Eleven clerk used to deal with - daily.

The simple fact is that in the above case, we Don't know what that kid actually looked like, I've seen many 18 year college students who do look much older than they are, including myself, because I've been balding since I was 17 and had a somewhat thick beard. On top of that, we don't know what exactly the kid said. In my case, they asked..I said not without an ID and they left. What if the kid actually looked older and was insistent about being of legal age? The clerk figured what the hell and just sold it.

EDIT: If government really wants to stop underage drinking/smoking. They should require everyone to show their IDs when buying cigarattes/alcochol. That way poor clerks won't have to hear sh*t from jerks!