Slashdot Mirror
Judge: It's OK For Cops To Create Fake Instagram Accounts
An anonymous reader writes with a ruling that seems obvious in a case about police making a fake Instagram account. A federal judge in New Jersey has signed off on the practice of law enforcement using a fake Instagram account in order to become "friends" with a suspect — thus obtaining photos and other information that a person posts to their account. "No search warrant is required for the consensual sharing of this type of information," United States District Judge William Martini wrote in an opinion published last Tuesday. In other news, an undercover officer still doesn't need to tell you that he or she is a member of law enforcement if you ask.
And then the public defender you're assigned because you can't afford a decent lawyer tells you to go ahead and plead guilty to the lesser charge, even though everyone knows it's a false charge (the accusing party has a long history of making such charges and is well-known to the local police and judiciary) since it really doesn't mean anything, and you'll just get probation, but if you take it to trial they'll be mad and will throw the book at you. And two weeks after you are frightened and pressured into pleading guilty, and are sentenced to several years in prison, your lawyer is hired by the state as an assistant prosecutor.
Then you're too stupid to be free.
Lying and entrapment are very different things.