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Undercover cops in New York are riding the subways with iPods on to entice robbery. Is that a form of entrapment? If not, why not?

12.06.2025 07:33

Undercover cops in New York are riding the subways with iPods on to entice robbery. Is that a form of entrapment? If not, why not?

Government agents may not originate a criminal design, implant in an innocent person's mind the disposition to commit a criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so that the Government may prosecute. Sorrells v. United States, 287 U. S. 435, 442. Jacobson was not simply offered the opportunity to order pornography, after which he promptly availed himself of that opportunity. He was the target of 26 months of repeated Government mailings and communications…

Enticement is not Entrapment.

From the circuit court ruling:

If everyone in Russia dropped into holes in the ground only never to return, would that be good for NATO and international peacekeepers? Can we convince Russians to be less diabolical, so they coexist? Does Putin stink like doo doo in the commode?

Entrapment is fairly specifically defined in law… It happens when the police create a situation where someone commits a crime that they would not otherwise be inclined to commit.

The most famous example of Entrapment is probably Jacobson v. United States, a case from the early 1990’s about child porn. In this case, the government repeatedly offered Jacobson illegal content, and provided a whole bunch of reasons why he should purchase it under the guise of free speech, etc.. When he eventually did (after two and a half years of basically being pestered about it), they arrested him.

Not at all.

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