This is so ludicrous and beyond the pale that it’s hard to come up with a way to defend it. Aside from the obvious entrapment issue, I would think the kind of guys who they think they’re going after are exactly the kind who wouldn’t approach a woman like this. The article also discusses other nutball ways of entrapping people into committing various ‘crimes.’ Glad I live in Vegas where our cops have more pressing issues like preventing people from feeding the homeless.
ABC News: Topless Woman Lured Perverts for Police
Robin Garrison, an off-duty 42-year-old firefighter, was walking in Berliner Park in Columbus, Ohio, in May when he saw a woman sunbathing topless under a tree.He approached her and they started talking and getting comfortable, the woman smiling and resting her foot on his shoulder at one point.
Eventually, she asked to see Garrison’s penis; he unzipped his pants and complied.
Seconds later, undercover police officers pulled up in a van and arrested Garrison; he was later charged with public indecency, a misdemeanor, based on video footage taken by cops who were targeting men having sex or masturbating in the park. While topless sunbathing is legal in the city’s parks, exposing more than that is against the law.
Come on, I expect a better picture to accompany this post.
While this is a ridiculous use of law enforcement dollars it does satisfy the bible thumper populace.
“..Oh, Edgar look, we are ridding God’s planet of sexual deviants once and for all……Whatcha say, Claire? …. I said, we are catching and jailing sexual deviants… Oh, that’s nice. We need to re-elect Andy as sheriff again.”
Ah, yes. Vice cops. Scum of the Earth, who are paid to arrest people for being people,
evenparticularly in the total absence of harm done anyone.On a side note, it’s certainly good news to note that the Columbus PD has apparently wiped out rape, armed robbery and all other serious crime.
Our Brave Men and Women in Blue, putting their lives on the line to protect us. Heartwarming, it is.
It’s easier to trap than it is to hunt,
There is something fundamentally wrong about a police officer or agent asking a citizen to break the law and then arresting them for it.
…but it’s so much easier to create “crimes” than to solve real ones. Besides, this way they make sure they don’t encounter any real criminals, who might try to hurt them. Self-preservation, I think they call it. Must be teaching it at the Police Academy. “Avoid contact with actual criminals. They have been known to be violent.”
Just what I want my children to see when we go to the park; police women exposing their breast and soliciting others to expose them selfs too.
What I want to know is why the city attorney hasn’t issued warrants for these perverts in blue.
Sounds like a perfect time for Jury Nullification. Oh wait! Judges don’t allow the jury to know about that! Anyone who brings it up is threatened with contempt.
People should be required to learn this stuff in civics class. Oh wait! The Department of Education does not support schools in this effort, schools get NO particular budgetary benefit for teaching civics. And we all know thats what matters most. Right? This stupidity is preventable, if only people weren’t so busy watching TV.
People should read the whole article and ask what is wrong with the judicial system. He, the man, was found guilty by a jury no matter what the defense tried to show. It’s Columbus Ohio and if a heterosexual man is attracted to a naked lady he is thus a pervert. This puts him on the sex crimes registry too along with people who pee in the park and further mocks the justice system. Meanwhile people are being murdered and killers are getting away scot-free. Right now there are over 9000 unsolved murders in NYC. Meanwhile, the cops are pinching citizens for picking up wallets laying in the street as though this is a crime.
And I do not blame the cops, it’s their desk-jockey supervisors who come up with this crap. I’d bet money that if you looked into the Columbus sting you’ll find a middle manager who came up with the idea.
That said there seems to be growing evidence that the police force in general may be getting fearful of the criminal element. This they go after the citizens to keep their numbers up.
Alright, given all this..whatta ya gonna do about it ?
I’m not asking anyone in here to actually solve this or any other Fkked up aspect of our current society but, I really think it’d be a nice way to start the new year with some comments suggesting places to start or things to contemplate that would make even the tiniest difference. Hang on a sec..gotta take Frank Sinatras’ High Hopes off the record player…
Darn..while I’m here..Can we please get a better photographer for these things ?!? It’s HARD to form an opinion without clearly defined goals(?).
I agree this is a travesty and I have no doubt this guy was set-up and that if the police have nothing better to do, they really should face some layoffs… however, it was illegal to expose his penis and he did expose his penis. No one put a gun to his head, he willingly did it in hopes of getting it wet.
#8. every jury knows about nullification.
#12. I have a problem with the cops creating more crimes. try solving ones that already happened, or actually preventing some.
I should WARN all of you, of a strange fact that passed into LAW.
that Entrapment is NOW LEGAL, in most states.
It passed awhile back, in a Back door Law.
cops werent able to catch anymore crocks. so they SAID’ they needed this to pass. The crooks were too smart for them.
As do I, which is why I wrote that if cops don’t have anything better to do, they should be laid-off. My point was that I simply do not feel sorry for him. He was in a public park and exposed his penis. He got was he deserved.
(as above) thus peeing in the park is now a sex crime by this logic.
If that was referring to me, I certainly do not think he should be on any sex list. The problem with the list as it is currently implemented is that it is too easy to get on. They’re so afraid of missing something they wrongly put nearly everyone on it.
The problem, which should be utterly obvious but it not to law enforcement, is that such a broad list is useless for determining who is a predator.
I think being placed on the list should be a judicial determination at sentencing based on the specific facts of the case. If the defendant acted as a predator, he should go on the list. If he was peeing in the grass, he should not.
In this instance he was not a predator. If anything, the chick was the predator in this instance.
#15, SN
I don’t disagree with your assessment. From what I read though, the officer asked him to display his penis. That means the cop asked him to break the law. Unfortunately, the jury was not given the law on entrapment, which is the ground being appealed.
If he is guilty of breaking the law for whipping it out, then the police involved are equally guilty of conspiracy. It may not be entrapment to give someone the opportunity to commit a crime, it is entrapment if the police ask someone to commit the crime. The asking puts the police on the same footing as the person who actually commits the crime.
#16, JD
As I understand it, many jurisdictions consider “peeing” behind some bushes a sex crime. I agree whole heartedly that most people on the “sex crimes list” shouldn’t be there. All the list does is further stigmatize people to prevent their rehabilitation.
Apparently there are also people on the list for doing things such as grabbing a girl’s arm (who did something illegal) because he was much older than her, someone “mooning” out the window of a car, and streaking.
They should take up a collection and buy her some implants.
So the guys they ask to do something bad in public; the women they hire to do something bad and the cops who thunk it all up. All got arrested for this?
They apparently were taking advantage of a loophole in the law. Exposed breasts are not considered indecent, but an exposed penis is indecent.
All I can say is if a topless woman is asking to see my penis, I will grant her request because stuff like that usually only happens in porno movies.