8 ms·

I think a big chunk of the population are follower types who could be convinced to go along with all sorts of things. These people are generally going to behave

I think a big chunk of the population are follower types who could be convinced to go along with all sorts of things. These people are generally going to behave as society expects them to, or at least as the last persuasive person they talked to expects. I think the type of sting operation described in this article could ensnare millions of such people, few of whom would have ever felt any impetus to commit this sort of crime. The subject of this article certainly displayed poor judgement, but wasn’t any kind of danger to society without this scenario constructed by the police. I don’t think public in any way benefited from this operation. All it did was take a productive member of society out of commission. I think this is like the time the government put out a bounty on rabbit heads, so farmers started breeding more rabbits. The farmers are the police and the rabbits are sex offenders.

glogla 6y ago
Yeah. If police is coming up with ways to manufacture victimless crime, they obviously don't have enough to do in real crime, and we can defund them and save the money. If they are coming with this while there is real crime unsolved, well, they are doong it wrong.
rumanator 6y ago
> The subject of this article certainly displayed poor judgement, but wasn’t any kind of danger to society without this scenario constructed by the police. I don't agree. The whole point of sting operations is that they enable police to catch people that pose a danger to society by catching them in the act. In this case we have a man in his early 20s caught actively trying to meet a 13yo girl for sex. The same man stated he already had sex with 5 or 6 other girls like this, although he didn't specified their ages.
- shajznnckfke 6y ago
  I’d agree with you if the supposed victim wasn’t a 24 year old who provided pictures of themselves in the lead-up to the meeting. To me, it reads like the police constructed an interaction where it would have been clear to the target of the sting in the moment that he was engaging with an adult (which was indeed the truth), but that included a few phrases that show evidence of guilt when removed from that moment. I think the police could have demonstrated much more convincing evidence of guilt if they had someone who looked like a 13 year old answer the door, and recorded the man’s reaction.
  - rumanator 6y ago
    > I'd agree with you if the supposed victim wasn’t a 24 year old who provided pictures of themselves in the lead-up to the meeting. That's quite the disingenuous take on the case. You're just cherry-picking the age of the police officer tasked with the sting. During the whole sting the same agent repeatedly made it very clear that the girl he was trying to meet to have sex was 13 years old. That fact didn't discouraged him the slightest and, just like he did 5 or 6 times before, we went to meet the 13 year old girl to have sex with her.
    - shajznnckfke 6y ago
      I think you’ve made a big error in your reading of this story if you got the impression that he regularly hooked up with underage girls. He regularly had sex with women, like many men. A history of having sex with women is not evidence of him being a child predator. Neither is going to meet up with someone who looks 24. If the police wanted to target actual child predators, they wouldn’t be sending out photos of 24 year olds. It seems like the were targeting non-child-predators with bad judgement. Maybe finding the real predators is too much work.
      - rumanator 6y ago
        > I think you’ve made a big error in your reading of this story if you got the impression that he regularly hooked up with underage girls. I said he admitted he already had sex with 5 or 6 girls of unspecified age the same way he was caught trying to have sex with a 13 year old girl. That's what he did, and that was his motivation when he knowingly tried to meet that 13 year old girl. > A history of having sex with women is not evidence of him being a child predator. Trying to meet 13 year old girls for sex is the evidence of him being a child predator. > Neither is going to meet up with someone who looks 24. The girl repeatedly stated, and made it quite clear, that she was 13 years old. That fact, which was made quite clear to him and he acknowledged and fully understood she was a 13 year old girl. Still, the fact that the girl he tried to meet repeatedly stated quite clearly she was 13 years old was not deemed by the criminal as a good enough reason not o have sex with her.
- choo-t 6y ago
  >In this case we have a man in his early 20s caught actively trying to meet a 13yo girl for sex. Odd, the article describe a 24yo girl actively trying to meet a 20yo for sex, advertising herself on a 18+ website, using recent photo of her, photo in which she is well beyond the age of consent of any country on earth.
  - rumanator 6y ago
    > Odd, the article describe a 24yo girl actively trying to meet a 20yo for sex The article describes a sting operation led by a 24 year-old police officer that caught a man actively trying to have sex with a girl he was fully aware was 13 year old. He repeatedly asked her age, she repeatedly made it quite clear she was 13 years old, and he proceeded to try to meet up with the underage girl with for the explicit intent of having sex with her.
    - choo-t 6y ago
      >girl he was fully aware was 13 year old. You are mixing up fiction and fact. She wasn't 13, at best she was (poorly) trying to pose as a 13yo. >He repeatedly asked her age, she repeatedly made it quite clear she was 13 years old He correctly assumed her age despite her lying about it: “why did you post an ad in craigslist if your 13? You mean 23?” Keep in mind she was on a adult website, actively searching for sex and send a photo of her as an adult. >he proceeded to try to meet up with the underage girl with for the explicit intent of having sex with her. Neither the girl on the photo nor the girl receiving him was underage, nor she look underage.
      - rumanator 6y ago
        > You are mixing up fiction and fact. She wasn't 13, at best she was (poorly) trying to pose as a 13yo. The sex offender caught in the sting was trying to meet a 13 years old girl. That fact was even admitted by the sex offender before, during, and after the arrest. > He correctly assumed her age despite her lying about it: No, he tried to downplay the fact he was actively trying to have sex with an underage girl by claiming that, when he was caught trying to have sex with an underage girl, no officer from the police department that arrested him when he drove to the 13 year old girl's address with the explicit purpose of having sex with her was really an underage girl.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > The whole point of sting operations is that they enable police to catch people that pose a danger to society by catching them in the act. No, the point (at least of the these sting operations) is that they provide a low-effort way of producing large volumes of convictions for long-sentence offenses. > In this case we have a man in his early 20s caught actively trying to meet a 13yo girl for sex. Was he, though? He was actively trying to meet a person who he gave concrete signs of not believing was 13 years old, in large part because they were neither 13 nor doing a particularly good job of simulating being 13.

glogla 6y ago

Yeah. If police is coming up with ways to manufacture victimless crime, they obviously don't have enough to do in real crime, and we can defund them and save the money. If they are coming with this while there is real crime unsolved, well, they are doong it wrong.

rumanator 6y ago

> The subject of this article certainly displayed poor judgement, but wasn’t any kind of danger to society without this scenario constructed by the police. I don't agree. The whole point of sting operations is that they enable police to catch people that pose a danger to society by catching them in the act. In this case we have a man in his early 20s caught actively trying to meet a 13yo girl for sex. The same man stated he already had sex with 5 or 6 other girls like this, although he didn't specified their ages.

shajznnckfke 6y ago
I’d agree with you if the supposed victim wasn’t a 24 year old who provided pictures of themselves in the lead-up to the meeting. To me, it reads like the police constructed an interaction where it would have been clear to the target of the sting in the moment that he was engaging with an adult (which was indeed the truth), but that included a few phrases that show evidence of guilt when removed from that moment. I think the police could have demonstrated much more convincing evidence of guilt if they had someone who looked like a 13 year old answer the door, and recorded the man’s reaction.
- rumanator 6y ago
  > I'd agree with you if the supposed victim wasn’t a 24 year old who provided pictures of themselves in the lead-up to the meeting. That's quite the disingenuous take on the case. You're just cherry-picking the age of the police officer tasked with the sting. During the whole sting the same agent repeatedly made it very clear that the girl he was trying to meet to have sex was 13 years old. That fact didn't discouraged him the slightest and, just like he did 5 or 6 times before, we went to meet the 13 year old girl to have sex with her.
  - shajznnckfke 6y ago
    I think you’ve made a big error in your reading of this story if you got the impression that he regularly hooked up with underage girls. He regularly had sex with women, like many men. A history of having sex with women is not evidence of him being a child predator. Neither is going to meet up with someone who looks 24. If the police wanted to target actual child predators, they wouldn’t be sending out photos of 24 year olds. It seems like the were targeting non-child-predators with bad judgement. Maybe finding the real predators is too much work.
    - rumanator 6y ago
      > I think you’ve made a big error in your reading of this story if you got the impression that he regularly hooked up with underage girls. I said he admitted he already had sex with 5 or 6 girls of unspecified age the same way he was caught trying to have sex with a 13 year old girl. That's what he did, and that was his motivation when he knowingly tried to meet that 13 year old girl. > A history of having sex with women is not evidence of him being a child predator. Trying to meet 13 year old girls for sex is the evidence of him being a child predator. > Neither is going to meet up with someone who looks 24. The girl repeatedly stated, and made it quite clear, that she was 13 years old. That fact, which was made quite clear to him and he acknowledged and fully understood she was a 13 year old girl. Still, the fact that the girl he tried to meet repeatedly stated quite clearly she was 13 years old was not deemed by the criminal as a good enough reason not o have sex with her.
choo-t 6y ago
>In this case we have a man in his early 20s caught actively trying to meet a 13yo girl for sex. Odd, the article describe a 24yo girl actively trying to meet a 20yo for sex, advertising herself on a 18+ website, using recent photo of her, photo in which she is well beyond the age of consent of any country on earth.
- rumanator 6y ago
  > Odd, the article describe a 24yo girl actively trying to meet a 20yo for sex The article describes a sting operation led by a 24 year-old police officer that caught a man actively trying to have sex with a girl he was fully aware was 13 year old. He repeatedly asked her age, she repeatedly made it quite clear she was 13 years old, and he proceeded to try to meet up with the underage girl with for the explicit intent of having sex with her.
  - choo-t 6y ago
    >girl he was fully aware was 13 year old. You are mixing up fiction and fact. She wasn't 13, at best she was (poorly) trying to pose as a 13yo. >He repeatedly asked her age, she repeatedly made it quite clear she was 13 years old He correctly assumed her age despite her lying about it: “why did you post an ad in craigslist if your 13? You mean 23?” Keep in mind she was on a adult website, actively searching for sex and send a photo of her as an adult. >he proceeded to try to meet up with the underage girl with for the explicit intent of having sex with her. Neither the girl on the photo nor the girl receiving him was underage, nor she look underage.
    - rumanator 6y ago
      > You are mixing up fiction and fact. She wasn't 13, at best she was (poorly) trying to pose as a 13yo. The sex offender caught in the sting was trying to meet a 13 years old girl. That fact was even admitted by the sex offender before, during, and after the arrest. > He correctly assumed her age despite her lying about it: No, he tried to downplay the fact he was actively trying to have sex with an underage girl by claiming that, when he was caught trying to have sex with an underage girl, no officer from the police department that arrested him when he drove to the 13 year old girl's address with the explicit purpose of having sex with her was really an underage girl.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> The whole point of sting operations is that they enable police to catch people that pose a danger to society by catching them in the act. No, the point (at least of the these sting operations) is that they provide a low-effort way of producing large volumes of convictions for long-sentence offenses. > In this case we have a man in his early 20s caught actively trying to meet a 13yo girl for sex. Was he, though? He was actively trying to meet a person who he gave concrete signs of not believing was 13 years old, in large part because they were neither 13 nor doing a particularly good job of simulating being 13.