SNIP
Provo officers noticed ads on Web sites that were promoting sex services in Utah Valley and decided they needed to deter such activities. They set up phony online ads on the Web sites, suggesting that women would be available for work on May 7. That day, nine men showed up at a hotel where two female officers posed as hookers. The men were arrested and cited on charges of patronizing a prostitute, a class B misdemeanor.
SNIP
In the Provo sting, no prostitution services were ever going to provided. The authorities managed the whole affair. No one was ever at risk. The "crime" was rooted in fiction from beginning to end. There was no underlying crime because there was no actual prostitute.
In short, the worst that occurred was a "thought crime," which takes us straight into Orwell's "1984." The men only thought they were going to hook up with a prostitute, but the whole scheme was a ruse to make them think dirty thoughts. It apparently worked quite well, but dirty thoughts are not a crime. "Intent" may constitute a crime, but intent is meaningless without an avenue to carry it out.
SNIP
Consider New York City's "Operation Lucky Bag" from a couple of years ago. Police left wallets, shopping bags, purses and backpacks sitting unattended at subway stations and other public places. When people picked up the decoys, and walked past nearby uniformed officers without turning in the found objects, detectives swooped in. Police trumpeted that nearly half of those arrested had police records.
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/309733/3/
Provo officers noticed ads on Web sites that were promoting sex services in Utah Valley and decided they needed to deter such activities. They set up phony online ads on the Web sites, suggesting that women would be available for work on May 7. That day, nine men showed up at a hotel where two female officers posed as hookers. The men were arrested and cited on charges of patronizing a prostitute, a class B misdemeanor.
SNIP
In the Provo sting, no prostitution services were ever going to provided. The authorities managed the whole affair. No one was ever at risk. The "crime" was rooted in fiction from beginning to end. There was no underlying crime because there was no actual prostitute.
In short, the worst that occurred was a "thought crime," which takes us straight into Orwell's "1984." The men only thought they were going to hook up with a prostitute, but the whole scheme was a ruse to make them think dirty thoughts. It apparently worked quite well, but dirty thoughts are not a crime. "Intent" may constitute a crime, but intent is meaningless without an avenue to carry it out.
SNIP
Consider New York City's "Operation Lucky Bag" from a couple of years ago. Police left wallets, shopping bags, purses and backpacks sitting unattended at subway stations and other public places. When people picked up the decoys, and walked past nearby uniformed officers without turning in the found objects, detectives swooped in. Police trumpeted that nearly half of those arrested had police records.
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/309733/3/