magnuslion said:
Honestly the stupidity of the above post astonishes the hell out of me.
Realistically, what Chris Hansen is getting away with is violating the constitution, and someones Miranda rights. He conducts interrogations that are filmed and then later broadcast and used in trial settings. He is actively engaged in entrapment. and he gets away with it because there are millions of fools in the U.S that do not know there own rights and find this crap "entertaining". encouraging pedophilia is not entertaining. I would crucify Hansen in his own front yard, but that would make us both criminals.
If we haven't met on the escapist. Hi! I'm Thor 10 year police officer and recently appointed Professor of Criminal Justice.
Entrapment is when the police trick or force you into doing something you have no choice to do. It is NOT when a situation is created where you do something illegal. The people on that show could have, Not shown up to their rendezvous, stopped talking to the 'child' at any point or walked away from the situation at many different points.
It would be entrapment if while pretending to be the child the police (or chris whoever) said "If you don't come visit me tonight I'll kill myself" Then the guy could say "I wouldn't have showed up. I had no choice the kid was going to kill herself"
That is entrapment.
Another famous case happened when the police sent a previously convicted pederast 'kiddie porn subscriptions' for THREE years waiting for the guy to subscribe to their 'magazine' then arresting him when he did. This was technically a 'grey' area (nothing forced him to sign up) but thrown out for other reasons. (can't recall the case name I don't have my books in front of me I believe it was in Iowa)
Despite what TV and maybe wikipedia has taught people. Your miranda rights are not first read to you when you're arrested or even at the beginning of an interview.
Miranda rights are read to you once you've officially become a suspect. As hansen interviews the people it could be argued that they are 'witnesses' or a 'person of interest' if you're either of those things Miranda doesn't enter the picture. I do agree with you though that this is at BEST a grey area and at worst a misconstruing of the rules. (Chris also identifies himself as a journalist, not a law enforcement officer which further muddies the waters)
Almost every state also require you to sign (or at least mark) a document saying you have read the following listing the rights.
Until the early 90's police would get around miranda rights by letting barely literate supsects read the document. The kibosh was put on this most places now require you to read it out loud to them. Some states even go so far as to have a 'plain speech' copy of the document. (Ours is written at a 2nd grade reading level)
That all being said. My two cents? I agree with you that the show was WILDLY inappropriate, cruel, and crass. The way the interviews were conducted was again, shady at best, and the dramatic natures of the arrest and airing of the show were made to PUNISH people by public humiliation (5th amendment violation) before they had a trial! If anything THAT is what he should be suing for.
