To Catch a Predator: Entrapment or the Right Thing to Do

There is a lot of evil in this world; evil so strong that the only way to get a grip on it is to try to contain it in a controlled manner, but where do you cross the line? When trying to contain evil or illegal doings, you need to be able to determine if the perpetrator actually committed an illegal act or was the perpetrator put in a situation where he is set up in a way that makes him commit the illegal act. NBC Dateline’s To Catch a Predator, even though very entertaining, is entrapment to the many men who fall for the sting operation. NBC Dateline’s To Catch a Predator is a hidden camera television series devoted to exposing and detaining potential child sexual abusers who try to make contact with children on the internet and then try to meet them in person. Chris Hanson (the host; see picture to the left) conducts these undercover investigations with an online group called Perverted-Justice. Perverted-Justice works with local authorities and together they conduct these busts. This popular series has been on for quite some time now and faces some lawsuits. A man committed suicide after being caught in the sting which raises the issues of how extreme are the actions by these groups toward a situation they create. So I searched the blog world to see what other people had to say about NBC Dateline’s To Catch a Predator and see if anyone agreed with me. The first blog I read praised the show and opted for internet laws. While I agree there should be internet laws, the laws I am in favor of are entrapment laws and identity laws. The second blog I read was all favor on To Catch a Predator and thought that they weren’t doing anything wrong. Majority of child sexual abuse happens within the family or friends of the family. I feel a person needs to be pretty stupid to invite a stranger they met on the internet over, or at the same time get caught and be on national television.

"Law Enforcement and the Web, Social Networks, Cyberworld Communities"

Comment:

First of I want to agree with you that it is the right of every person out there in cyber land to inform the police about criminal activity. Doing so makes you a good citizen because if you saw something illegal going on in the real world, you'd think that you would do something about it like call the cops. But just like we have entrapment laws in the books we should have the same on the internet. Shows like NBC Dateline's To Catch a Predator with the help from Perverted-Justice help create criminal activity for these guys. They carry a week or so conversation between the pervert (see picture to the right) and the decoy and then give the pervert a reason to come and visit. But when he gets there, before committing any crime (because the decoy allows them to come inside) get publically humiliated and then arrested. I totally think that it is wrong for the perpetrators to carry conversations with what they think are young boys or girls and drive out of their way to come and do god knows what. It is the job of the kid’s parents to make sure their kid isn’t chatting with strangers on the internet. Just like people preach “abstinence” is the best form of protection during sex, not chatting with strangers should be the same priority. There should defiantly be internet awareness campaigns out there just like we have with drugs, alcohol, and HIV. On one hand I praise the fact that To Catch a Predator exposes these weirdoes, I feel like they create entrapment as well.

“Chris Hansen, Dateline and PeeJ are at it again!”

Comment:

Hey man, I totally agree NBC Dateline’s To Catch a Predator series is the best piece of reality out there. I find myself glued to MSNBC when they have their block documentaries on. But the more I watch them and laugh at the sickos; I get to thinking that the perverts are being set up big time. Its one thing to a persistent predator, but it seems that a lot of the guys are unsure about driving to these locations and coming into the house but the decoy continues to lure him in. I feel like Perverted-Justice creates these crime situations for these people and humiliate them on national television. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s really funny, but these people have families and lives and yea the creep should get what he deserves but their families shouldn’t have to suffer on their behalf. How devastating would it be for a wife to find out her husband problem is now national entertainment for everyone to laugh and make judgments on. Even you reported yourself about a man committing suicide in Texas after one of these investigations. If we allow this to go on where would we be drawing the line? Even those these people are the bottom scum, they are entitled to their own rights; rights that protect them from entrapment and public humiliation.

Catering to a Market: Legalizing Marijuana

The future of business is always going to be innovation. In order to have something successful running, a person is going to have to think outside the box. We live in such a fast and changing time, a society that has information at its finger tips, that we forget how many basic and simply things can change the quality of life and make people some serious money. One of the slogans we often hear from politicians is how they want to reduce the crime rate in their country and/or community. Maybe they can take a lesson from countries such as Holland and Canada; even places in the United States like Oakland, Denver, and looks like now Portland. Portland, Oregon might just be the next major city in the United States to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana (see to the right). This new ballot being called “Measure 8” would allow possession of less than one ounce of marijuana for people that are over the age of 21 (at the current moment, possession of less than once ounce is considered a misdemeanor violation). This new legalization of marijuana in Portland, Oregon can tend to a market that already exists. The city can cater to the market and make itself a good amount of money that can be used to pay for things ordinarily would through taxes. This way the city, and hopefully later the state will encourage people to spend more money and in return do a nice helping to the economy.

This has proven to be successful in Holland with its coffee shops in Amsterdam that sell marijuana and hashish with a cup of joe. Marijuana is not illegal in Holland and yet their crime rate tends to be low when it comes to drugs. At the same time, legalized marijuana created a closer community among its people and a sense of freedom to expand their mind. This summer among other places in Europe I happen to be in Amsterdam and talked to a few lawmakers and they were very proud of their laws. Not only did it create business they said but also decriminalized a lot of innocent people that would otherwise get time for smoking something better than a cigarette if a person were to do a cost-benefit analysis.

In cities like Oakland, having medicinal marijuana is a great thing to help people and eliminates having to deal with a shady drug dealer. People end up getting arrested for medicating the natural way (see picture to the right); a police officer in Oakland said, "Working the streets, I legitimately witnessed sick people self-medicating with marijuana and drug dealers taking advantage of the." Having to register with the DMV, the city automatically makes money on a license fee and gathers a data base of marijuana smokers in the area. In order to be able to get a Cannabis Smokers’ Card, a person needs to be over the age of 21 and have a written prescription from a doctor. Some of my friends have Cannabis Smokers’ Card for mood swings or ADD, and they always tell me how much easier it makes their lives dealing with an actual business .

Opponents of legalization of marijuana say that it is a bad idea to legalize marijuana because of the message that it would be sending children and health issues, "There's no F.D.A.-approved product, to my knowledge, that's delivered in a smoked form," says Mr. Gust, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. But what kind of message is being sends to children when their parents come home from work and get drunk to forget about their busy day? There is no way that a city or state will make the mistake of making alcohol illegal again because of all the money they would lose out on from the money they make from taxes and the C.R.V charge. Or how about the message a kid get when his parents or parent that is very loving, caring, and supportive gets arrested for such a petty crime. The police and DEA in Oregon have been bringing scrutiny to the program. The federal agency has been subpoenaing names and personal information of the program members and the police has been conducting grow raids all over the state. Hopefully Portland will jump on to the bandwagon and legalize marijuana.

Rosepipe: A Crack Pipe By Another Name

The drug trade is a dangerous but yet very profitable arena for business that is dominated by territory and lacks any government regulation. The only thing in the way becomes competition which usually results in casualties or the government watching over the back of its citizens and waiting for them to make a mistake. Along with crack cocaine dealers supplying the drug and runners that sell it, a new planer had entered the drug trade. These players are owners, managers and clerks of some local convenience stores. All across the country franchise gas stations and mom-and-pop stores have been selling a $2 item that is very often used as a crack pipe (see picture to the right). The product is a 4 inch long glass pipe the width of a ballpoint pen with corks closing each end. Inside this object is a fake rose with a bud as small a nail on a pinky. They go by the name “rose tubes” or “love roses" and they are used to smoke crack cocaine. Local convince store owners knowingly sell "rose tubes" to drug addicts in their community

The average person assumes that these rosepipes are meant as a simple and quick gift a guy might buy for his girlfriend while he is in the store getting something else. But the typical rose buyer is a man that buys a 40-ounce bottle of beer and a Chore Boy scouring pad which he later uses as a screen for his newly made “stem," a street name for a crack pipe. Some store owners know exactly what these rosepipes are used for. In 1998, an Arizona clerk told an Arizona Republic columnist that she know the rosepipes were used for crack pipes, “addicts bought them regularly she told them. In order to dodge the laws that prohibit the sale of drug paraphernalia, workers at the convenience stores were told not to sell rosepipes if the customer referenced them as 'crack pipes', the code between the buyer and seller became asking to buy a flower."

A case in Palm Beach County targeting a Mr. Beverage store tried a clerk on charges of selling a rose, along with a copper scouring sponge to an undercover officer. The jury heard an audiotape of the officer asking the clerk if he could purchase a crack pipe. The clerk corrected the undercover officer by saying “We don’t call it that. We sell roses.” The clerk’s attorney argued in the clerk’s defense that the undercover officer pointed to items in the store during the buy, which became “leading” his client. The clerk was later acquitted. In April 2000, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission told merchants that “love roses’ or “rosepipes’ do qualify as narcotics paraphernalia and any licensee who is using, storing, exchanging or selling them will be cited with an MLCC violation. But Marjorie Kelly, editor of Business Ethics magazine in Minneapolis said that the rosepipes create a “muddy” situation for store owners. “Simply selling a store product that is not used as it was intended, I don’t think a store owner has an obligation to stop selling it,” she said. Children have sniffed glue to get high for decades she also noted. Should stores stop selling glue?

Gordon James Knowles, an assistant sociology professor at Hawaii Pacific University did research on the crack cocaine scene in Honolulu’s Chinatown while studying for his doctrine in 1996. From the addicts he observed and interacted with he learned that the addicts bought “crack kits” from convenience stores. For $8.50, the store owner pulled out a brown paper bag with a 4-inch glass tube and some copper mesh. The tube was rose-less and the kits were stashed under the counter in a hidden location. In his publication “Deception, Detection and Evasion: A Trade Craft Analysis of Honolulu, Hawaii’s Secret Crack Cocaine Traffickers, Knowles wrote “Legitimate businesses are shown to have capitalized on crack addiction by marketing and distributing drug paraphernalia related to crack cocaine consumption.”

With store owners (see picture below) that indefinitely know what rosepipes are used for are immigrant convenience store owners that have no idea what the street culture in Ameirca is like and mimics a competitor convenience store's supply thinking that if his competitor has this product in his store it must make money for him. In that situation, the store owner was lacking in information but if he purposely bought rosepipes knowing that they are later going to be used as crack pipes, the store owner is doing something wrong. What separates him from being in the drug trade? Gas is needed to drive a car just like an object is needed to smoke crack. Rosepipes have become a glamorous crack smoking device in the streets, instead of using a light bulb that the addict screwed off a porch light or a soda can. Even though this surfaced almost 10 years ago, stores continue to sell them and the cases go back and forth from court to court. The best way to get stores from selling them is by having residents’ protests against the product and boycott the stores selling drug paraphernalia. This can be achieved through awareness programs stemming from the internet; pop-up ads or banners exposing this issue. To magazines ads similar to anti-drug and tobacco. And television commercials like the The Truth or quick public service announcements.

Pharmaceutical Companies: Legal Drug Dealers

Doctors are supposed to help people get over an illness that they are battling; perform check-ups so that we know our health is alright; even though we live in a capitalistic society where it is all about competition and increasing profits, certain professions need to not take a business oath and remember why they initially wanted to become that profession. Doctors these days are making a lot of money from pharmaceutical companies; these companies invite doctors on trips to places like Hawaii, and all the doctors have to do is tell a patient about that pill that the company is trying to sell. Some pharmaceutical companies even hire medicine marketing firms like TarketRX; their job is to come up with symptoms that each medicine could treat so that the pills could be marketed to a demographic.

Paroxetine (better known as Paxil in the U.S.) is an antidepressant. It is licensed only for adults, but doctors are allowed to prescribe any medicine if they think it will help their patient(see picture to the right) ; a practice called “off-label” prescribing; around 7,000 children a year were on the drug in the UK; and many more in the U.S. Many teens that take these antidepressants end up committing suicide because the drug ends up increasing aggression in the young adult. The new cholesterol lowering guidelines are proving to be a windfall for statin drug manufacturers like Pfizer and Merck: most news articles and medical advice concerning the new guidelines recommend drugs—and drugs only—to reduce cholesterol level. As a result, the guidelines are perhaps better described as profit generators for pharmaceutical companies. 6 out of the 9 panelists that issued the new decision about cholesterol levels have received grants or consulting payments from statin drug manufacturers; the panelists get paid “consulting fees” and grant money, the guidelines are arbitrarily lowered to a level that suddenly puts millions more Americans into the “high cholesterol” categrory simply by changing the definition, the popular press runs headlines screaming that millions of people should now suddenly be taking statin drugs for life, and the drug companies receive a windfall in sales and profits. The doctors are getting “consulting fees” for doing nothing more than signing a blank piece of paper, the researchers are getting “grant money” to carry out research that almost always supports the drug companies, and the mainstream media is receiving billions of dollars in ad revenue as long as they keep pushing drugs to customers, both in advertising and news content.

The problem is that none of this has anything to do with real health. Prescription drugs simply don’t make people healthy; they mask symptoms, and these statin drugs have a bewildering array of dangerous side effects such as sudden death, loss of sex drive, osteoporosis and hormonal imbalances. Prescription drugs are not needed to be healthy; the whole system of promoting these drugs is an unprecedented con being perpetrated on the American people. In fact, the system is downright criminal; the FBI should be investigating and prosecuting the players of this industry, using the RICO laws designed to bring down organized crime (see picture to the right). The economic logic of the medical-industrial complex is straightforward, prescription drugs and high-technology medical devices account for a growing share of medical spending; both products are expensive to develop but relatively cheap to make so the profit from each additional unit sold is large, giving their makers a strong incentive to do whatever it takes to persuade doctors and hospitals to chose their products. Hospitals and doctors need to remember the reasons why they became doctors; if they wanted large payoffs, they should of become politicians; doctors should only prescribe medicine that they really think is going to be helpful, not the most profitable.

Most Privatized War In History: Iraq

Going down in history as being the most privatized war in United States existence gets thrown around a lot these days. With the help of the United States government, private firms like Halliburton, Blackwater USA to name a few. The CEOs of the two firms mentioned plus a countless amount of others make anywhere between twelve to sixteen million dollars a year and pulling in billions of dollars in revenue for their corporation. Recently Federal investigators have uncovered what they describe as a sweeping network of kickbacks, bribes and fraud involving at least eight employees and subcontractors of KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary, in a scheme to inflate charges for flying freight into Iraq in support of the war; it seems to me that these very “inflated charges” are how we as taxpayers are being cheated out of our money while the government that is supposed to protected us is letting these private firms cheat us. The first post I responded to “War Means a Windfall for CEOs”, from the blog, “Say-When.org”, by Michael Brush; in this post, Michael talks about how much private firms have gained in terms of stock and earnings over the years through the war in Iraq. The second post I responded to was “Iraq, Cheney & Halliburton: Greed Is Great “ by Max Blunt, and it talks about Halliburton and how they profited from Iraq with 10-year contracts, and the fact that win or lose, these death merchants make their money anyway.

Comment1:

First I want to let you know your blog is great; it is ridiculous how many private firms have benefited from the war in Iraq. I watched this documentary about war profiteers in Iraq and I couldn't believe what I saw; Haliburton is charging the government about $100 for every soldier’s load of laundry, and if the soldier refuses the service and tries to do it himself, he is ordered not to by someone. Many of the contractors hired by Blackwater USA drove empty cargo trucks; becoming a target for any terrorist organization in the vicinity. If a cargo truck gets a flat, instead of changing it, the drivers are ordered to ignite the complete vehicle; the purpose being if all these private firms overcharge the government, they are going to make higher revenue; but who cares about the working and middle-class citizens that end up paying these firms with their hard earned tax dollars; like you showed, the CEOs rake in tons of money every year. The cost for some is even greater than money; Middle American people that get involved in contracting become pawns to the bigger game in Iraq. Before stumbling to at your blog, I had an idea about how many firms made money of this war, but now I see that here are far more.

Comment 2:

I want to say that your post is well put together and factual yet in laments terms. Bush and his administration knew how much money the war was going to end up costing Americans; all of Bush’s daddy’s friends have had a huge amount of experience in Iraq, they knew how much unrest this war would cause in that region; since the United States military cannot profit, I feel like contracting to private firms is just inversing to government profit when instead they are actually huge loses. For these short-term monetary gains for a few handpicked firms and people, countless of families have been destroyed in this war; generations crippled with little or no choice but to get into terrorist organizations. I like how you pointed out that these contractors that get work in Iraq have no military training but yet pretend to be so there; Iraq is not a Starbucks parking lot, you cannot hire security in a situation like that. Well you can, but you probably won’t be the world super-power. Good blog, I am defiantly going to visit it again.

Blackwater USA: War Profiteers’

There are more than 130,000 U.S. military personnel and 25,000 American contractors that are risking their lives in Iraq, while many are greatly committed to their mission; some are seeking to cash in on the crisis. What is different about the occupation in Iraq; however, is that a huge portion of the effort has been privatized (contracted out to private companies). $20 billion of U.S. money has been spent so far on reconstruction of Iraq, ironically while the reconstruction has been contracted out, largely to U.S. firms, Iraqis who are supposed to benefit have been largely left out. They see private contractors, armed and dangerous, riding through streets without the training, the discipline or the accountability needed in an occupation such as this one.

Private firms are hired to supply security for the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Contractors feed the troops, transport the equipment, guard officials and buildings, and construct everything from military bases to electrical stations to school rooms. Blackwater USA, based in Moyock, N.C., one of three private security firms employed by the department to protect its personnel in Iraq, is heavily under criticism after the alleged killing of eight Iraqi civilians Sunday. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed regret at the loss of life and promised that the results of an internal investigation would be shared with the government in Baghdad, investigation or no investigation, the damage has been done and this time it looks like there are going to be consequences.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry said it had revoked the license of Blackwater USA, to work in the country. While Iraqis blamed Blackwater USA for the civilian deaths, the company said it acted appropriately “in response to a hostile attack” by armed insurgents. Rep. Jan Schakowsly (D), who has long questioned Blackwater’s role in Iraq said, “Under what law are these individuals operating, and do the Iraqis have the authority to prosecute people for crimes they’re accused of committing? It’s a very murky area; it’s still not really clear whether they are eligible for prosecution from the Iraqi government.

The argument for privatization is clear, advocates claim it reduces the load on the U.S. military (and, of course, helps conceal the size of the U.S. commitment in Iraq at the same time). In theory, private contractors – competing to offer the best service at the best price – are more efficient than government agencies or the military, and in an occupation and reconstruction, much of the work involves the kind of rebuilding for which the U.S. military has neither capacity for nor the interest.

United States contracting is far removed from the theory. Most of the large contracts in Iraq were initially made on sole-source, no bid contracts. Contractors were rarely held accountable for delivering the promised result, low bid initial prices were “renegotiated” upward regularly in the course of the contracts, and oversight was virtually nonexistence. Deals made in Washington by men and women in suits had very disastrous consequences halfway around the world.

The U.S. government spent $270 billion in overall defense acquisitions and contracts between September 11, 2001 and 2005. The killing of four men in is often seen as a turning point in the occupation. Killed, burned and hung from a bridge, their deaths remain seared in American minds. The men were not GIs but private contractors, employees of Blackwater USA, sent into Fallujah on business. The contract with the military required that every mission use armored vehicles, the two vehicles sent into Fallujah were not armored (buying unarmored rather than armored vehicles is estimated to have saved Blackwater USA $1.5 million in equipment costs. The contract required at least six people on each team: a minimum of two vehicles, each with a driver, a navigator and a heavily armed rear gunner (the victims in Fallujah were on a four person team with no rear gunners and no heavy arms. Business tends to bring out the worse in people because self-interest gets in the way of morals and the right thing to do, but taking politics and interlacing it with business proves to be a deadly combination. Not only are we losing innocent lives on both fronts, we are tarnishing the U.S. for future generations to come.