The Eureka Police Department arrested six people on Saturday for furnishing minors with hooch. How, you ask, did they catch half a dozen such creeps in a single day?
It’s called a Decoy Shoulder Tap Operation, and here’s how it works: Some sleezoid corrupter of youth slithers his way toward a liquor store, cleverly hiding his demon horns under a trucker’s cap. Before he enters the fluorescent booze den, an innocent young thing — his usual prey — approaches him and with puppy dog eyes says something along the lines of, “Please, sir. I am underage and bereft of Mike’s Hard Lemonade for my corner stand.” Wink.
Devoid as he is of moral fiber, the man takes pity on the child. “Sure thing, sweetheart,” he says. And before he can even step foot inside Barney’s Discount Liquor Barn, boom! It’s cuffs o’clock, sucka!
Where’d the cops come in, you ask? Was the child perhaps a dashing, oddly young-looking officer of the law? Nope. Real kid — “a minor under the direct supervision of a peace officer,” according to an EPD press release. Now this scourge of society will be punished with a minimum $1,000 fine and 24 hours of community service.
You bleeding hearts out there might whine, “Hey, isn’t that entrapment? He was minding his own business until you coppers showed up with Junior in tow.”
Guess what, hippie. Wrong as usual.
And sleazeballs? Consider yourselves warned.
This article appears in Los Hechados.
but how are kids gonna kid their booze now?
A study was done concluding that, void chance of prosecution, far more people would help the minor in this situation than not. What does that say about the law and law enforcement? Sounds like forcing the law. Same with prostitution stings. Horny single men approached with strong sexual intent by an attractive suitor…you’d think the decoy should at least jack the guy off before locking him up and taking his money anyway. It’s like stealing.
Consider countries with no minimum drinking age, and their relative intelligence. The system is broken, demonizing drugs and alcohol isn’t the solution, intentionally playing big brother with people is very bad. When did YOU have your first drink, Ryan?
Is this for real? Now the EPD is hiring minors to help them enforce liquor laws? Wait until one of the minors gets injured or killed in the line of duty. I guess it was a slow news day for you Ryan and the EPD. One would hope the EPD has more serious crimes to prevent. Whose idea was this anyway? Really, is this what our tax dollars are paying for. Sounds like the EPD has too many cops with nothing to do. Time to downsize?
From what I have seen the youth of Eureka are just nasty little rednecks with mischief on their minds. This is another way for them to be disrespectful to an adult. But the person approached by them would have to be half nuts or he would reject the request.
For the benefit of those who might see the above type of enforcement as a means of isolating people by generation, there is an antidote. http://Www.agelesscomingle.com. However, I have not tried it or can vouch for it.
Richard (troll) for the benefit of those who’ve just had a very serious crime attached to their lives, one that will affect every aspect of their future in addition to potentially crippling financial consequences begining immediately, consider the fact that there weren’t really any minors soliciting adults for alcohol in the first place.
I think the kids they use are already on probation and they and their parents agree to this to shorten their time. That’s the way it used to work down in So. Cal.
When I was in High School we would just give a bum extra money for his habit in exchange for buying us a twelve pack. They were about 5 bucks back then and we’d give the bum a 10.
It worked every time.
To clarify, the tone of arrogant jackassery in which this post was written was an assumed voice, not my own. It was also probably a dumb idea, one that may have implied a number of opinions when I only meant to convey one: This is thorny ethical territory on a number of fronts. Let the discussion continue.
When I was touring Holland and Switzerland on purely professional herbal sampling business, I seen a few punk teenagers hanging out drinking. In California, I seen hella punk teenagers hanging out drinking. There are differences.
In California, under 21 drinking is illegal, under 21 purchase is illegal, teenagers can’t step foot in bars, and adults can’t supply kids with alcohol for any reason. California kids binge on 40s of King Cobra and fruit-flavor St. Ides and shit.
Swiss and Dutch kids can hang out in pubs, buy wine, sip pints, and take their time. Their parents can supervise them and not fear cops.
If drinking laws accomplished anything more than jack shit, you’d think that everybody would be a fucking lush in countries where high schoolers can order drinks at a restaurant.
That’s a cop out response, Ryan. Every year the Eureka Police Department asks for more money and more officers. Do you see the muscle cars they’re driving? How about some sarcasm regarding their effective use. This is a monumental waste, and your blog reads like that of a hack.
Anonymous 6:55 belongs to a tiny minority that believes that there is too much law enforcement in Eureka and that high journalistic standards should be maintained on blogs.
Recruiting kids to act as bait? What happens when some citizen who is outraged that the kid is asking them to buy booze socks the kid in the mouth, or worse? Sounds to me like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
It’s not a question of “too much” law enforcement, or “too little.” It’s a question of what these law enforcement officers are actually doing with their time. And in my opinion, the situation is much improved under the new police chief. But I do think that recruiting kids to act as bait in a sting operation is not a very good idea.
I agree that entrapment is hardly necessary, and is a bad idea. But unlike Anonymous 6:55, I’m happy to see cops patrolling traffic, and I enjoyed the humorous tone of this piece.
Meanwhile, ten meth deals went off without a hitch right around the corner. Do you know how much those brand new state of the art Chargers cost? Do you know what the salary is for the average officer? Six people getting screwed by our local “heroes” for weak crimes that otherwise would never have happened isn’t a laughing matter to me, sorry. Ryan’s depth of insight is severely lacking. This is the type of thing that affects crime statistics, money movement, political clout, and most importantly the lives of the average joe on the street.
My “depth of insight?” You’re changing the subject, 655. Setting the tone of my post aside for a moment (I understand you didn’t care for it — fair enough), this post describes an operation conducted by the EPD, one that, to me at least, is ethically questionable. That’s the sum total of my insight on the matter. Your main reason for finding it lacking, it would appear, is that I didn’t address the size of EPD’s budget or the Dodge Chargers said budget allows — a separate issue entirely.
As to the tone: A secondary objection, if I’m reading your comments correctly, is that you don’t find this to be a laughing matter. Again, fair enough. I happen to be one of those tasteless oafs who think satire can be used for social commentary. Yucks might be a bennie, but they were not my primary objective.
Style aside, I suspect we may agree more than we disagree here.
Ryan- your humor was not lost on me, but i wonder if you are playing into the hands of ABC.
From the ABC Decoy Shoulder Tap Program website: “One of the most effective uses of the media is to publicize enforcement. Therefore, a press release announcing the program and its goals and objectives is issued to the local news media. Since many adults are not aware of the seriousness of the offense, the publicity of those arrested sends a strong message to those who may be inclined to assist a minor in getting alcohol.”
I wonder if you received and printed info about the Decoy Shoulder Tap Program before there were arrests?
I wonder if Ryan cares beyond his job requisites. If it’s a pat on the back for generating page traffic, congrats to him but that’s pretty sleazeball.
Yes, Ryan, for your own sake…at least that of your journalistic integrity…please keep the abhorrent police budget, and their constant demand for more, in mind when choosing to report with such casual flair how they spend the money. Like ruining the lives of unsuspecting residents for crimes that didn’t really happen. Perhaps instead of taking the time to find links playfully denouncing “hippie” naysayers (it’s very obvious you harbor some sort of real life contempt toward “hippies”…you can thank me for reading later) you instead spend the time thinking about the causes and affects of what you’re writing about. It would demonstrate some depth of insight. Put yourself in the shoes of the six people screwed by Eureka’s finest.
Nice trick! In the defense of adults who intended to purchase alcohol for minors, Anonymous 655 comes across as a finger-wagging Puritan.
prohibition really works, just look at our prison system. USA USA USA!
In defense of Ryan, Joel either misses or chooses not to address the points I made. Your Puritan call is backwards…as a cartoonist, maybe you’re familiar with South Park Conservatism?