entrapment or good police work?

[BrianW]

Maybe not 'forced" but certainly "directed by" the cops, ie:
Man goes to sell a shotgun to undercover operative in otherwise legal transaction.
UO says "Cut the barrel off for me right here" (at 18").
Man does so w/ hacksaw.
UO gives man payment.
Man is then arrested/charged with selling a sawed off shotgun.
That's "entrapment" in my book.

[david gibson]

Maybe not 'forced" but certainly "directed by" the cops, ie:
Man goes to sell a shotgun to undercover operative in otherwise legal transaction.
UO says "Cut the barrel off for me right here" (at 18").
Man does so w/ hacksaw.
UO gives man payment.
Man is then arrested/charged with selling a sawed off shotgun.
That's "entrapment" in my book.

that would be entrapment. the seed of the illegal activity was planted by the cop.

if the guy said: "i'll cut the barrel off if you want me to" - even if he didnt specify a length, and the cop said "ok, cut it right here at 18" ", then its not entrapment, but close.

we dont know anywhere near enough facts to make a judgement of entrapment or not on the portland bomber case, and nobody outside of the case will until it goes to trial. there were way too many conversations and actions that arent known. i would hope the fbi would be smart and set it up so as not to be entrapment, but cops are people too and sometimes they dont always do things right. but i doubt they just picked a kid at random and said "hey, lets make a fake bomb case with this guy". they monitor subversive web sites/message boards etc, and when they spot a guy that they feel would carry it out if he found the right people, then its smart to pretend to be the people he seeks and disarm his plan before he actually does meet terrorists that would help him.

my bet would be not entrapment, but you never know what can happen when you get a jury full of liberals

[david gibson]

to me, he did himself in with the court of public opinion by shouting "allaha akbar!" instead of "i didnt do nothin'!" upon his arrest.