South Dakota law enforcement used the Sturgis Rally as cover to lure ten Jeffrey Epstein wannabes into jail:
Ten men were arrested in an undercover operation that targeted people using the internet to meet minors for sex at the Sturgis motorcycle rally, according to federal court records unsealed Tuesday.
Kenneth Williamson, Sean Gertsch, Hugo Duque, Justin Westby, Graydon Shangreaux, Brennan Hauk, Stanley Lumbardy, Jeric Davis and Josef Pettit pleaded not guilty after being charged with enticing a minor using the internet, court records show. Jonathan Whitney is charged with enticing a minor using the internet by a previously convicted sex offender.
…The sting involved law enforcement posing as 15-year-old girls and a 15-year-old boy. It began Aug. 2 and was conducted by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigations and Internet Crimes Against Children unit, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Rapid City Police Department, Pennington County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies.
While the operation occurred during the Sturgis rally, most of the conversations weren’t related to the rally except a few girls who said their parents were away attending the event [Arielle Zionts, “Ten Men Arrested in Sturgis Rally Underage Sex Sting,” Rapid City Journal, 2019.08.14].
Keep in mind, the named defendants didn’t actually rape any children. DCI and friends only caught scuzzy dudes who thought they were going to have the opportunity to rape children.
Hmm… if such preventive stings are acceptable law enforcement practice, perhaps DCI should start conducting shooter stings: instead of pretending to be children offering themselves for rape, pretend to be online pals willing to help potential killers hide body armor and mass-murder gun accessories from their parents, get the potential killers to admit their inclination to express their toxic masculinity with bullets, arrange a sniper meet-up, and then arrest the potential killers when they show up at the Hotel Alex Johnson or Dinosaur Park or other high vantage points with their case of rifles and ammo.
Hey, they’re now qualified to be in the Trump Administration.
In criminal law, entrapment is a practice whereby a law enforcement agent or agent of the state induces a person to commit a criminal offense that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit. It “is the conception and planning of an offense by an officer or agent, and the procurement of its commission by one who would not have perpetrated it except for the trickery, persuasion or fraud of the officer or state agent.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment
It’s surprising they didn’t catch Mike from Iowa’s unfavorite representative, the typical GOPer, Steve King. Why? Read this:
“Rep. Steve King said Wednesday that humanity might not exist if not for rape and incest, prompting the latest round of outrage at the Iowa Republican, who has a long history of making inflammatory remarks.
“In a discussion at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, Iowa, King was defending his position against laws allowing abortion exceptions in cases of rape and incest.”
(From Wapo, paywalled)
Apparently the known racist, another typical GOP characteristic, doesn’t mind rape or incest, so perhaps he’d like to rescind those laws. We should add misogynist to the list of his heinous attributes.