Stimulus checks lure 76 Floridians to their arrest

Stimulus checks lure 76 Floridians to their arrest

www.reuters.com

MIAMI (Reuters) - Police in a Florida city used the promise of economic stimulus checks to lure 76 people to their arrest on a variety of outstanding warrants.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department set up "Operation Show Me the Money" to round up people wanted on charges ranging from second-degree murder to guns and drug charges to failure to pay child support.

(visit the link for the full news article)

What is your take?

Lazy Police work, or great idea?

I will vote for the lazy idea. Sure its great they got some bad people off the streets, but that was an evil thing to do. Whats next, doing this for simple tickets, suspicious persons, avoiding swine flu. How else could they handle all the people that wont take the vaccine?

Lets hope they are just having tons of layoffs too.



www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I am surprised not even a single person tried researching the name of the stimulus program. I am sure they could have opened a nice can of worms when they found out their police were esentially commiting fraud doing this.

Oh well, stupid people got what they deserved, considering they all had outstanding arrest warrants. Just quite funny that they got baited-- hook line and sinker. I think one quick google search on "South Florida Stimulus Coalition" would have prohibited them from falling for the ruse.

Funny (AND SAD!!!) that the majority of the population has forgotten how to research anything not located on TV, Facebook or Youtube.

[edit on 31-8-2009 by SlasherOfVeils]

Great Idea

Reminds me of an old episode of cops.

They had an empty TV box and two plain clothes officers would carry it to the door and ask for "such and such", that they've won a TV in a raffle or something, the person would tell the cops their name and whamo, arrested.

Great Stuff.

[edit on 31-8-2009 by elevatedone]

I'm all for it, what ever it takes to catch these criminals released on a promise to not flee

Smart move on behalf of the cops.

I am curious of the legality of it to see if they violated any federal laws sending the letters out by mail. False advertising

reply to post by elevatedone


Nice!

That TV idea actually sounds safer, than using mailings to lure people to a location.

My only question is, if the cops knew the criminals' addresses to send them the phony stimulus check bit, why didn't they just go and arrest them?

reply to post by octotom


because the wanted fugative probally wasnt living at thier mailing address - but still using an associate to collect mail

I saw this on the news last night and I was cracking up! I have seen many variations of this tactic: Free TV's, Radios, Turkeys, and even Case Dismissals!!

I don't see any problem with it; it is much safer than raiding somebodies home.

On second thought though:
I am uncomfortable with the idea that the police can lie as much as they want to illicit a confession or an arrest, but it is a crime for a citizen to lie to a police officer!

Originally posted by jam321
I am curious of the legality of it to see if they violated any federal laws sending the letters out by mail. False advertising

Depends... were the checks cashable? If the money was real then no fraud. And maybe they can apply it to lawyers fees.

good idea. Goes to show what some people feel they are entitled to. How many of these criminals do you think have been working hard 40 hrs a week?

reply to post by Cyprex


My take is entrapment...

They lied period. In my line of business we call this phishing. It's the tactic du jour for most high tech criminals these days.

These cops lied. If you have to lie to catch a criminal, well then you are no better.

reply to post by jam321


i believe they call what they did entrapment i shall wait to see if somebody whos more fluent in legal talk knows if this is a crime.

Originally posted by make.changes
reply to post by jam321

 

i believe they call what they did entrapment i shall wait to see if somebody whos more fluent in legal talk knows if this is a crime.

Actually, the entrapment excuse is no longer viable. It can't be used in the court of law as of about 4 years ago I believe. with that said, I love how people are replying with "whatever it takes to get these CRIMINALS off the streets." I gurantee more than half of these "crimes" are unpaid parking tickets. Or a late court fee. Its a waste of time if you ask me. There are much more important things these genius' could put those good ideas to use for. This in my opinion isn't one of them.

[edit on 31-8-2009 by -NewSense-]

[edit on 31-8-2009 by -NewSense-]

i would agree with newsense, i cant believe that they got rid of this term it use to be awesome, they have murderers and rapists to get off the streets not to mmention how much money these stupid little things cost us people of the united states

Originally posted by Cyprex


What is your take?

Lazy Police work, or great idea?

I will vote for the lazy idea. Sure its great they got some bad people off the streets, but that was an evil thing to do. Whats next, doing this for simple tickets, suspicious persons, avoiding swine flu. How else could they handle all the people that wont take the vaccine?

Lets hope they are just having tons of layoffs too.



www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

sorry for the double post, my computer freaked out.

[edit on 8/31/2009 by ChameleonCircuit]

Originally posted by Cyprex


What is your take?

Lazy Police work, or great idea?

I will vote for the lazy idea. Sure its great they got some bad people off the streets, but that was an evil thing to do. Whats next, doing this for simple tickets, suspicious persons, avoiding swine flu. How else could they handle all the people that wont take the vaccine?

Lets hope they are just having tons of layoffs too.



www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I dont know why everything all of a sudden has to do with the swine flu. This was just a way for a local police department to solve a problem. If the people were dumb enough to fall for it thats thier own problem. There is nothing wrong with it.

How about this to add to the story

A Fort Lauderdale resident who would only give his first name, Rob, arrived late Thursday for his ``stimulus check'' and was released after police realized he did not have an outstanding warrant.

Afterward, the 21-year-old was fuming that the letter he said claimed he would receive $653 was bogus.

``I knew it was something shaky, but I was like, `What do I have to lose?' '' he said.

Such reverse scams are fairly common, said Joe Pollini, a retired New York City lieutenant commander who is now deputy chairman of the Law and Police Science Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

www.miamiherald.com...

Flag for this thread. I really believe now that they did commit a crime. What crime is the question?

Very funny and good idea.

Don't forget that criminals HAVE NO PITY for their victims !

So, for me, there is NO bad way to catch a bad duce !

AND,
! ! ! if you can't do the time, don't do the crime ! ! !

Blue skies !