Isaiah 10:1 (NIV)
1Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
The stings continue, and at a rapid pace. More so this year than last. And more so than in the past few years. The OJJDP continues to fund the ICAC program more and more each year. It went from $27.6M in 2016 to $34.7M in 2020. And with the funding grants, arrest have increased. It is not much of a surprise when the grants encourage stings to encourage successful prosecutions of our citizens by any means necessary. It doesn’t seem to matter if the FBI or any other police agency ignores policy and procedures. The court system will take care of their own. Most (~75%) will plea out and the few (20%) that go to trial will lose. I’m sorry but there are not a lot of happy endings; even Robert Kraft was shamed during a sting operation but managed to win in the end. The losers in his case were the women who got coerced into being participants in the stings.
What can we do? We have to continue to speak out and raise our voice about what is going on. To bring awareness about these sting operations. Articles like the one in the NY Times Magazine. To bring Lawsuits to help stop the injustice. To speak to legislature to inform them laws are being misused to put those entrapped by sting operations in prison for A LONG TIME.
Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on. — Thurgood Marshall
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Every person remembers some moment in their life where they witnessed some injustice, big or small, and looked away because the consequences of intervening seemed too intimidating. But there’s a limit to the amount of incivility and inequality and inhumanity that each individual can tolerate. I crossed that line. And I’m no longer alone. — Edward Snowden
We CAN bring about change,
-Samuel