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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.
Is anyone confused by the fact that cops can lie in the course of their work? Because thats something everyone should be crystal clear on: they can.
Or maybe people dont understand that things you share with a cop, even "off the record", can be on the record. That, too, is a myth that should be dispelled.
As long as the character they create is entirely fictional and not based on impersonating someone they know is a friend of the suspect, I'm fine with it. Cops running around trying to "friend" people in my name is not.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Oh yeah, because it's "on the Internet".
...if you have the ability to change the law to suit your needs.
I've always wondered if anyone has tried the exact opposite of asking an undercover agent if they are a cop.
Simply work under the assumption that everyone is a police or law enforcement officer. And only conduct business with them after signing legal contracts recognizing them as an agent of the law whereby they are authorizing your activity for some other lawful purpose like entrapping, errr I mean prosecuting someone else.
Let's say I own an internet business. I notice that a profile is fake and delete it off the system. Suddenly, I'm told by the police it was theirs. And, if I don't put it back up it's obstruction of justice. Note: Told to do so, not "here's a court order." Does the ruling make this scenario feasible? And if so, what is the liability for the company if they do or don't make the account viable again.
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
So, in this judges opinion, can we make a fake Instagram account for him or the police?
Or is this act of lying purely something they reserve for themselves?
Because, you know, maybe this judge should start sharing his fondness for sheep and Barbie dolls.
Oh, wait ... if we did it, it would be a crime. And, I'm sorry, but if it's a crime for us, then you should have some form of prior authorization.
Otherwise this judge has said "we can commit crimes, you can't" ... which will pretty much confirm that the law deems themselves above it. In which case this judge's new Instagram account should be interesting to see.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I'll try explaining it the other way around, with a real-life case. There have been several cases that fit this pattern.
A cop wants to bust a bad guy. That cop gets his wife, a teacher, to pretend to be the DA and tell the bad guy he's authorized to do $crime. Cop busts the bad guy.
In court, bad guy says "the DA said I could ... at least, I thought she was the DA. The real DA replies "I never said a word to the guy. Some teacher said it was authorized, but she has no authority to authorize anything."
In such case, the courts have consistently held that the defendant is not guilty, because they THOUGHT that their actions were authorized and therefore lawful.*
So you see it doesn't matter if the person "authorizing" it is really a cop, a teacher, or a DA. What matters is what the defendant BELIEVES - whether they are trying to commit an act that is criminal or they are trying to aid law enforcement. The legal term is "mens rea", which means "guilty mind",'also known as "criminal intent ".
You are free to think that the courts should have done the opposite and found the person guilty when the "DA" actually isn't a DA. You can think it's wrong or right, but what actually sends people to prison or not in such cases is their actual belief - did they believe their act was authorized or not. The actual identity of the authorizing party does not matter under law.
* This mention of mistaken belief reminds some people of the phrase "ignorance of the law is no excuse". Ignorance of the LAW generally isn't an excuse, but mistake of FACT IS an excuse. "I didn't know poisoning my husband counts as murder" is no good. "The bottle said 'blueberry syrup', so I thought it really was blueberry syrup that I put on his food" is a valid defense. Here we're talking about mistake of fact - the defendant thought the person was (or was not) a proper authority.
"Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
"To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution."
"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Don't confuse creating fake IDs versus what the DEA is doing by taking real people's names and photos and creating web pages impersonating those people.
Yep. I had my Facebook account pillaged by law enforcement to collect a few personal photographs and harvest some of my biographical information. I only found out when a real-life friend asked me why I had two Facebook accounts and which should I use to communicate with me. At first I thought someone simply had the same first and last name but after visiting the alternate account's homepage I was stunned to see my face and some real information about me such as the name of my high school although my location was in another province in Canada, and even a few mutual friends including the girl I know in real-life. Apparently my alternate identity was being used as bait, as in "I" was soliciting, as part of a prostitution sting operation. Considering the nature of my real-life employment and the types of clients coming through our office on a daily basis there was a grave risk of danger to my life if certain clients matched the fake identity (not of my creation) and collided with my in-the-flesh self. I am not law enforcement but my job puts me in the presence of some unsavoury persons.
That should be illegal - at least without the express written consent of the people being impersonated.
Yes, the cops have done this and the person sued. I would love to hear what happened in that law suit, because impersonating someone else is a very different matter from creating a fake account.
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