I’m of two minds about this subject. Allow me to explain. Today, I was reading this article in our local paper:
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/241750.html
Basically, the police employ underage people (mostly girls, it seems) to stand outside liquor stores and ask incoming patrons to buy beer for them. The decoys are wired for sound and have a team of officers standing by to nab them if the patron agrees to buy alcohol for them.
My question is this: Isn’t this some form of entrapment? I mean, if those decoys hadn’t been out there, the patron likely wouldn’t have done anything illegal. Sure, it’s possible that they are thinking, "Well, I *WAS* going to rob this liquor store, but since I’m buying alcohol for this nice lady who said she left her ID at home, I don’t have to anymore." I don’t think it’s likely. If they weren’t being entrapped, they likely would have bought their own alcohol, a pack of cigarettes and a porn mag. While I don’t personally like smoking, and I don’t like porn being so readily available, I think that cops creating a situation where the law would otherwise not have been broken is a little messed up.
It looks like the desired results are being created, though. Sales of alcohol to minors are down in this area. More people are afraid of buying alcohol for minors. Theoretically, this has an impact on drunk driving, etc. which is possible, I suppose. One has to ask whether the desired results could have been created using different methods.
One method I have heard, and I agree with, is to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18. Most of the world has an 18 y.o. drinking age. It’s sort of in line with the "not being a minor" thing. In the US, an 18 year old can choose to smoke, star in a porno, and die for his or her country, but can’t have a beer while doing any of these things. We’ll trust them with an M-16, but God forbid they enjoy one of life’s more simple pleasures. Of course…if they’re in the UK or Germany, they can drink, I believe. But if they’re unlucky enough to be stationed somewhere in the U.S., they’re screwed.
As for young people going crazy, I think part of the allure of having a kegger is the fact that it’s illegal. Not all of it, to be sure. But the type of people who are drinking just to get completely smashed are going to do that well into their thirties, I think. I don’t think there’s this magical maturity barrier that you cross when you turn 21.
"Man, last week I was at this RAGING kegger. We all got so drunk, we threw up within an hour of getting there. And then we drank some more!!! But this week, now that I’m 21, I just don’t want to do that stuff anymore."
Kind of arbitrary, really. If you’re not mature by 18, you’re not going to be much better by 21, I don’t think.
And again…should the cops be asking people to break the law? You could ask the same thing for these pedophile stings, but I think the situation is a little different. I mean, you’re cruising for people who are pedophiles all the time…If you stood out in front of a daycare offering your 10 year old child to strangers for sex, THAT would be similar to these shoulder-tap stings. Normally law-abiding citizens being randomly invited to break the law is quite different from creating a MySpace page and letting the pedophiles come to you.
I could be wrong, but I think the cops are sort of out of line here. And believe me…I’m interested in not making the police’s job more difficult than it is. This seems like entrapment, though.
In Other News: The Modesto Bee called Ron Paul "the only man who could have beaten [the Democrats] in November." For a liberal rag, the Bee has printed a couple of really favorable articles about Mr. Paul, highlighting exactly why I’ll be writing his name in when November arrives. The link to the article the Bee printed: http://www.modbee.com/1646/story/239664.html
I’m not positive as to whether or not this legally constitutes entrapment, but it sure seems to fit my definition. It makes me especially sad that it’s related to alcohol. I also think it would be well worth considering lowering the drinking age. In fact, I’ve often wondered why we couldn’t completely eliminate the concept of a drinking age. If it makes people feel better, I guess we could say that minors aren’t allowed to top some other semi-arbitrary number like a .06 BAC. I don’t know. It would be nice if people could realize that alcohol can be a good thing. It seems that folks are more likely to abuse alcohol if they have to hide it than if it’s set in front of them whenever they sit down for a meal or a chat with friends.