Originally Posted by braisler

Not to get off topic too much, but I saw something else that I thought was borderline entrapment on that same TV show COPS the other night. The police where staking out a lower income neighborhood late at night. They were putting a nice, new, shiny bike leaning unlocked against a pole. When some unsuspecting teenager comes along and sees this bike and decides to go for a ride, they pounced on him, tackled him to the ground and put him in cuffs. I don't know whether they actually tried to arrest him or not, but they did search him roughly and tell him that he had broken a law by stealing that bike. "He knew the bike wasn't his, didn't he?" Cripes! When you leave an unlocked bike leaning up against a building, likely it isn't going to be there when you get back. What's next. Are they going to drop a $20 bill on the ground on the sidewalk of a busy street and arrest the first person who picks it up? "You knew that $20 wasn't yours, didn't you?"

Cops are too often motivated by the wrong interests. Or we, the people, are too naive when it comes to the true role of the police in our society. They aren't here to protect and serve us.