This is Chris Hansen, from Dateline NBC.
If for some reason you find yourself doing something insanely illegal and wrong, such as trying to have sex with 12 year olds or steal people's credit cards, and you see this man, DO NOT tell him how much you like that show on NBC or how you've seen Chris Hansen on TV doing something amazingly like what he's doing. Not only will your life be ruined by your public humiliation and/or jailtime, you will look like an absolute idiot on national television.
On a more serious note, over the past few weeks I've had nothing better to do at two in the morning than watch this man's shows. I've also read a few news artilces, and what I'm wondering is this: how legal is this show, exactly? Who are these people that they can set up stings? I've seen these shows, and it's not like they're monitoring chatrooms for stuff that's already happening, they bait these people, when the targets say maybe they shouldn't come over because it's a bad idea, the decoy begs them to come over anyways.
They also do an identity theft show, which I'm amazed they got away with. They uncover this ring of people who steal credit cards, dupe single people into shipping the goods to Africa, then sell said stolen goods. Do they go to the police? Hell no. They set up their own electronics site, ship goods (without charging the stolen cards) to places, and travel to Africa and then to Switzerland to meet with someone involved in the ring, saying they wanted to invest in the operation. At no point were the American authorities contacted. This can't be legal. How far are we willing to go for good tv?
3 comments:
This sort of thing is against the law in the UK, for just the reasons/issues you raise. The police can't even set up a "honey trap" to catch would be johns as it constitutes entrapment. I've always thought stings stupid. There are plenty of people you KNOW about that need arresting, feck setting up others! It's kind of like what Sean Connery's character says to Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) in "The Untouchables": "Ness, everyone KNOWS where the booze is - all it takes is someone with the guts to stand up to Capone"!
Here endeth the lesson.
On the other hand, Chris Hansen may not be on the wrong side of the argument.
Some people are in favor of laws which force sexual offenders to register in their state, and inform the neighborhood they live in of not only their existence, but what they've done. Personally, criminal or not, I'm not about to breach someone's 4th amendment rights.
However, if an offender, (or would-be offender) is caught red handed by Mr. Hansen AND signs the waiver, then it's not the state's fault that he sold his 4th amendment rights for his 15 minutes.
This also allows the police more time catching criminals, not setting up elaborate stings which get thrown out of court anyway. They can use this show as evidence, because it's public property.
Think of it this way:
In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important, groups: the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
Chris Hansen is much like public LAW, he has no real authority, except being a man in a suit on a popular show. And in that context, he brings the justice of public defamation.
The people's court, and all other public courts like that represent the ORDER side. Their Authority has a slightly larger legal ramification, but the real court is the court of public opinion.
And the best part is...we get to choose who(if anyone) can take these roles in public opiniative justice. You don't like how Chris Hansen does his job? Don't watch his show. They'll replace him or cancel him. Either way, your vote counts.
I guess it's not Chris Hansen's job I mind, it's the decoys who persuade people to meet them there. There's a bunch of people who, although they might be lying, had never done that sort of thing before and tried to stop and reconsider but were hounded by the decoy. I think it's fine if they bust actualy criminal activity, not if they instigate it. But that's just my two cents.
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