The good news is that they dropped the burglary charges. The bad news is that they've instilled a distrust in police among the black community for at least another generation.
The police would have infinite times more trust if they weren't so hell bent on incriminating innocent people. From lying and coercing to you to get a confession, trying to search your home and vehicle without warrants and setting up traps that innocent people may fall for like this. There is no trust in the police because trusting them is the worst thing you can do.
Obligatory reminder to never speak to the police without a lawyer, they will use anything you say to attempt to convict you.
It is. But if the police ask them without a lawyer "did you steal those shoes" they dont know any better and will say yes. Then they can take that to court and their parents and say "They admitted to the crime" and then more bullshit continues. Thats why if you ever get arrested DONT SAY SHIT until a lawyer is present.
I think it's only entrapment in a legal sense if the cop tells you take the sneakers. Simply presenting someone an opportunity to commit a crime isn't entrapment.
If a cop went over to the kids and said "hey look, that truck is full of sneakers and no one is around, so you should go take them" that would be entrapment. But the sneakers just being there and the kids on their own accord deciding they should steal them isn't entrapment.
It's a really shitty thing to do to be sure, but doesn't fit the legal definition of entrapment as far as I know.
“the truck was locked and required considerable effort to break into, and that perpetrators couldn't have known the truck contained Nikes until after they broke in and began ransacking it.”
No, when a police officer incites it is. When a police officer merely places the truck in front of them but keeps it locked and doesn't say anything to them it's not entrapment. It is still however morally wrong and genuinely some of the most disgusting police conduct.
The truck was locked, had no logos, and the cops didn't push them into stealing from it. Thus it isn't entrapment
However, they placed it in an area where they knew people are desperately poor and regularly have to turn to illicit activities to make ends meet. Most truck drivers know this and don't park their shit outside for this reason. To anyone older, this would look like an obvious setup. That's why they targeted kids.
Wrong to steal shoes in a random truck, yeah. Wrong to steal shoes, -literally placed there for you to steal-, I hope some of them at least got away with it.
This post got kinda popular and so probably lots of folks that are not subscribed will see it. Please follow the rules pointed out in the sidebar, especially:
do not derail discussions with your concerns about morality or ethics
I am not sure if calling for death penalties for cops is something that fits slrpnk.net or the solar punk ideals.
Instead I would like to point you to the !abolition@slrpnk.net community which collects resources on alternatives to our current punishment based idea of justice.
Well, I absolutely agree with you.
My comment was a kind of .. test ? I wanted to know how people would react to this. It always seems to me that cops violence is taken very lightly, even among progressives, while the most cruel punishments are demanded against other abusers.
Well, the (only) reaction I got was yours. I didn't expect that.
But yes, in truth, I fully agree with you and I'm a committed penal abolitionnist. Feel free to delete my message, I'm all okay with it.