- 2 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
00:30Welcome, welcome to Last Week Tonight.
00:32I'm John Oliver, thank you so much for joining us.
00:34It has been a busy week.
00:36March Madness got underway.
00:38Mark Wayne Mullin cleared the first hurdle to become head of DHS.
00:40And of course, the conflict in Iran continued.
00:43Now, despite relentless bombing,
00:45the US has been unable to stop Iran striking targets around the region
00:48and blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
00:49The news hasn't been great.
00:51So on Thursday, Secretary Pete Hegseth decided to speak to the American public directly.
00:56I stand here today speaking to you, the American people.
01:02Not through filters, not through reporters, not through cable news spin.
01:09Yes, there are reporters in front of me, but they are not our audience today.
01:15It's you, the good, decent, patriotic American people.
01:19You, the hardworking, taxpaying, God-fearing American patriot.
01:26Okay, set aside Hegseth's whole vibe there, which is very,
01:29welcome to my birthday dinner, one of you has been poisoned.
01:33You actually don't need to announce who you are and aren't speaking to.
01:36There's a reason I don't start this show by saying, welcome, welcome, welcome.
01:39Fuck this studio audience.
01:41I wish they'd jump into the Hudson River if they don't laugh that's on them.
01:45Anyway, it's been a busy week.
01:46I might think it, but I'd never say it.
01:50Hegseth seemed particularly frustrated at the press pointing out parallels between this conflict
01:55and the wars that America's been stuck in in the past.
01:57This is not those wars.
02:02President Trump knows better.
02:05Epic Fury is different.
02:07It's laser-focused.
02:08It's decisive.
02:10To the patriotic members of the press,
02:12nobody can deliver perfection in wartime.
02:15This building knows that more than anyone, but report the reality.
02:22We're winning decisively and on our terms.
02:27Epic Fury is different?
02:29Maybe.
02:30It's definitely the stupidest name I've ever heard.
02:32It sounds like a VHS tape Hegseth put out of himself doing karate in a garage.
02:37It sounds like the name of an energy drink marketed to divorced monster truck fans
02:41containing so much caffeine it makes you shit your pants while having a heart attack.
02:45It doesn't exactly convey care and precision,
02:48but at the risk of not being a patriotic member of the press,
02:51a lot of things do seem to be going pretty poorly,
02:54from strikes on Iran's oil facilities causing toxic black rain endangering the public there,
02:58to the continued blockage of the Strait of Hormuz,
03:00which is causing skyrocketing gas prices.
03:03And while polls suggest that Trump's base is sticking with him so far,
03:07there are already signs of some cracks there,
03:09given the response of this woman interviewed at the gas pump.
03:12If you could say something to President Trump and he was going to hear you right now,
03:15what would it be?
03:17You are a worthless pile of shit.
03:21And you voted for him how many times?
03:23Three times.
03:25That was my bad.
03:26Apparently, I'm an idiot.
03:28I mean, not no.
03:32You know what they say?
03:33Fool me once, shame on you.
03:34Fool me twice, shame on me.
03:36Fool me three times,
03:37there's going to be a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz
03:39and my road trip to St. Louis is about to cost more than my car payment.
03:42Now, as for where things go from here, who knows?
03:46Thousands of Marines have been sent to the region,
03:48possibly to secure Iran's Karg Island,
03:50which most people would consider putting boots on the ground.
03:53However, Republican Pete Sessions is not most people.
03:56The island is not, in my opinion, boots on the ground.
04:02How so?
04:02It is a territory.
04:05It is Iran.
04:07Well, I'm not going to argue that point.
04:11As a matter of fact, you're right.
04:12But what I would say is the president has chosen not to obliterate the ability to get oil.
04:21And I think he wants to go secure that to make sure the Iranians don't do themselves in.
04:27So, I think it's probably wisdom.
04:30Is that boots on the ground?
04:31No, not like inside Iran where they're in the cities.
04:36Wait, wait.
04:37So, it's not boots on the ground because they're not in a city?
04:40What the fuck are you talking about?
04:43That clearly counts.
04:44The phrase isn't boots in the city.
04:47Mainly because I'm guessing that's already the title of an all-cap reboot of Sex and the City
04:51starring Puss in Boots.
04:52The point is, Trump seems desperate to paint this situation as much more stable
04:57than it actually is.
04:58And on Friday, he essentially just declared victory.
05:01Oh, I think we've won.
05:02We've knocked out their Navy, their Air Force.
05:05We've knocked out their anti-aircraft.
05:07We've knocked out everything.
05:08We're roaming free.
05:09From a military standpoint, all they're doing is clogging up the strait.
05:13But from a military standpoint, they're finished.
05:17Oh, well, that's great news.
05:18But here is the problem with that.
05:20He already declared that we'd won the war 11 days ago.
05:23And I don't know if you've noticed, but it has seemed to continue since then.
05:26And I've got to say, for all this administration's disdain for cable news spin
05:30and its insistence people report the reality.
05:33They are stretching the truth to breaking point here.
05:36Because even as Trump's claiming that we've won,
05:39the Pentagon's requesting $200 billion in extra funding for this operation,
05:42sure suggesting it's going to be going on for a while.
05:45He's also claimed we've destroyed 100% of Iran's military capability,
05:49which is a little hard to believe, given they're still somehow managing to strike
05:52multiple other countries in the region.
05:54And he claimed twice this week that a former president endorsed his decision to go to war,
05:59something they've all since denied.
06:01The lies are getting pretty flagrant here, even by this president's standards.
06:06And inevitably, people are noticing.
06:08In fact, you could argue that the only irrefutably laser-focused,
06:12decisive epic fury that has been on display this week
06:15has been this outburst targeted at him.
06:18You are a worthless pile of sh...
06:21Again, not no.
06:23And now, this.
06:25And now, as always,
06:27people on local TV cannot be trusted with St. Patrick's Day.
06:32It is so great to have you here, Chef.
06:33Thank you for having me. How are you all today?
06:35Great. Thank you and happy St. Patrick's Day to you.
06:37Thank you. Happy St. Patrick's Day to you.
06:38Top of the mornin'.
06:39May the luck of the Irish be with ya.
06:426.53. Good morning. Top of the mornin' to y'all.
06:44Top of the mornin' to all of ya.
06:46Top of the mornin' to ya.
06:48Top of the mornin' to ya.
06:48Top of the mornin' to ya.
06:49I don't know if that came out Irish enough, but eh, whatever.
06:51Jane, top of the mornin' to ya.
06:54Top?
06:55Oh, the mornin', right?
06:57Top of the mornin' to ya.
06:58Happy St. Patrick's Day.
06:59Oh, I like that. I like that.
07:01Wasn't that good?
07:01That was good.
07:02Top of the mornin' to ya.
07:04I can't do Irish.
07:05Top of the mornin' to ya, Christina.
07:06It's a beautiful mornin' out there.
07:08And we're definitely feeling like I should stop doing that accent.
07:11Top of the mornin' to ya.
07:12Top of the mornin'.
07:14You gotta give it more oomph, Jacqueline.
07:15I'm not Irish.
07:16Come on.
07:17Maybe Chip has some Irish in him.
07:18Let's send it over to Chip.
07:20Maybe he can do the Irish jig.
07:21I have an Irish jig.
07:23I can do an Irish jig.
07:25No, actually, my lineage comes from England, so we'd be the persecutors, I guess, in that
07:31situation.
07:32Liam, who's your favorite Irish person?
07:34I don't know.
07:35What an unhinged thing to say.
07:37Off the top of your head.
07:37Off the top of your head.
07:39That's not what I said.
07:40I mean, you can't think of anybody you like.
07:42I'm, uh, no.
07:46Moving on.
07:47Our main story tonight concerns undercover policing.
07:49It's not just a staple of movies and TV shows.
07:51It's something cops do in real life, too, to catch people suspected of breaking laws,
07:55both big and small, as this woman discovered.
07:58Karen Haag plans to fight the $230 ticket she got on Halloween Day,
08:02accused with dozens of other drivers of not stopping to let a six-foot-four Donald Duck
08:08cross the street.
08:09Then they just told me that I was, I was getting a ticket because I didn't stop for pedestrian.
08:14And it was a crazy, it was a duck.
08:16It was a huge duck.
08:17It was scary.
08:18I'm a woman.
08:18It scared me.
08:20It's true.
08:21A cop dressed up as Donald Duck and then ticketed people who didn't stop to let him cross.
08:27And I get why she kept driving there.
08:29Ducks are terrifying.
08:30As we've covered before, all ducks, Donald included, have a corkscrew penis.
08:34This isn't the first time that we've used this graphic and it will not be the last.
08:39And, incidentally, Disney, this guy hits public domain in 2030 and things are gonna get interesting then.
08:46That is just one of many instances where cops have set up so-called stings.
08:50In the past four decades, sting operations of all types have become a major part of law enforcement in the
08:55US.
08:56There are stings targeting drug dealing, sex work, terrorism, tax fraud, drunk driving, poaching,
09:00and a host of other crimes including, as you've just seen, failure to yield to a gigantic duck.
09:06And on some level, you probably know that cops like running sting operations given just how often they appear on
09:11local news.
09:12Drivers for the online ride service Uber targeted in an LA sting operation.
09:17Dozens of people have been indicted in a criminal sting operation called Operation Hush.
09:22A four-month major sting operation ends with a Butler County man facing felony drug charges.
09:27Investigators set up a sting operation orchestrating a purchase with the suspected drug traffickers.
09:32The amount of fentanyl seized, and hear this, could kill the entire population of Louisville several times over.
09:40Wow, is that anchor okay?
09:43Cops say there was enough fentanyl to annihilate this godforsaken town, leaving behind nothing but a desert of crow-pegged
09:49bones.
09:50Future generations will only refer to as the shadow place.
09:52Up next, we'll take you inside Louisville's new aquarium which, and hear this, contains enough water to drown us all
09:58several times over.
10:00But whilst things are often celebrated as triumphs on the news, when you start digging into them,
10:05the details can quickly become questionable at best.
10:08Take that Uber sting.
10:10The way operations like those work is an undercover officer flags down an Uber,
10:14maybe says they don't have the app or that their phone is dead,
10:16and offers to pay cash for a ride to their destination.
10:18The trap being, ride-share drivers are subject to arrest if a ride isn't pre-arranged.
10:23But that seems like a pretty shitty thing to do, given drivers may have been bending the rules to help
10:28someone
10:28who was telling them they were in need.
10:30And that makes it kind of satisfying to watch this video shot by someone caught in a similar sting,
10:35who then went back to the same location to warn other drivers.
10:39Hey, brother, those people are undercover cops. I just got a citation for this.
10:43Oh, really?
10:44Yeah, they trapped me.
10:46Yep.
10:48Good job, guys.
10:50I see y'all in court.
10:52Oh, I thought your phone was dead.
10:53Oh, your phone ain't dead no more, huh?
10:56Excellent.
10:57Everything about that is great, from the speed at which the driver pulls away when he hears the word cops,
11:01to the cops' clear disappointment, to the glee of the guy taunting them.
11:05I honestly haven't been this delighted to see a cop on camera
11:08since that Boston big boy zooted out of the slide.
11:15It's still so good.
11:18It will never not be good.
11:20If I die with a smile on my face, you will know that that was the last thing I saw.
11:25Call that video Paul Rudd, because it never gets old.
11:29But if it seems like the cops in that sting weren't so much stopping crime as creating it,
11:34that's sort of the point here.
11:36And it's honestly the case with more of these operations than you might think.
11:39So given all that, tonight, let's look at Stings.
11:42Why police love them, how they use them, and who is paying the price.
11:45And let's start with how they became so popular.
11:48Stings really took off in the 1970s, as police shifted from primarily reacting to crime,
11:52to trying to prevent it.
11:54That shift coincided with a string of Supreme Court decisions that expanded protections for defendants
11:58against coercive police tactics, with things like the establishment of Miranda Rights.
12:02As one expert noted, as the police use of coercion has been restricted,
12:07their use of deception has increased.
12:10The first large-scale sting operation began in 1975.
12:13And in it, DC police created a fake mafia-run fencing operation
12:16to lure people into selling them stolen property.
12:19And officers really got into their roles, giving themselves quote-unquote
12:23Italian names like Angelo Lasagna and Rico Rigatoni.
12:28Here is a photo of them.
12:29It is a picture that screams, the only Italian word I know is lasagna.
12:34They even padded out their backstory with lines like,
12:36we got a stiff in the trunk, what do we do?
12:39To which Rico Rigatoni would reply, toss him in the freeze.
12:43They also offered targets meatballs, telling them, and I quote,
12:46you'll hurt Pasquale's feeling if you no have a meatball.
12:50Ultimately, they wrapped up this thing by inviting everyone who sold goods to them
12:53to a giant party where a police sergeant played Don Corleone
12:56and had attendees kiss his ring as he told them they were under arrest,
13:00all by one agent sang, when the moon hits your eye like a big piece of pie,
13:04as he put handcuffs on them, and wow, das a lot of stereotype.
13:10But that sting was viewed as such a success,
13:13the federal government started giving local police money to emulate it.
13:17And departments around the country began doing their own versions.
13:20And the appeal of Sting's was obvious.
13:22As this news report from 1979 explains,
13:25catching people on tape makes for very easy prosecutions.
13:29Around the country, officials have had great success in court with Sting evidence.
13:33In Memphis, all but eight of the 1,500 Sting defendants pleaded guilty.
13:38And every one of those who chose a trial was convicted when the jury saw the tapes.
13:43Right, and that does make sense, doesn't it?
13:45Because once you have someone on tape, it is usually pretty much game over,
13:49with one notable exception.
13:51And police have sometimes gotten way too into the playing dress-up part of Sting's.
13:55In Baton Rouge in the 90s, some cops wore blackface in a sting operation,
13:59bragging to local reporters,
14:01not only do they not know we're cops, they don't even know we're white.
14:04And first of all, oh yes, they did.
14:07No one in the history of blackface has ever pulled it off.
14:10But also, you just cannot convince me that a white cop could speak for more than 20 seconds
14:15without identifying himself as both white and a cop.
14:19And the thing is, as Sting's became more common,
14:21courts have been reluctant to set limits on what police are allowed to do in them.
14:24As one analysis puts it, there are no clear legal limitations on the length of the operation,
14:29the intimacy of the relationships formed, the degree of deception used,
14:32the degree of temptation offered, and the number of times it is offered.
14:36All of which leaves the government with a nearly limitless ability to deceive.
14:40And some law enforcement will take that as an opportunity to rack up easy arrests
14:44and make some headlines.
14:46Take Sheriff Grady Judd in Florida.
14:48His department's constantly boasting about running online stings,
14:52often fishing for arrests concerning sex offences with flashing names like
14:55Cyber Guardian, Naughty Not Nice 2, and Child Protector 2.
15:00We sound less like police operators and more like Steven's cigar movies.
15:04And while you'd hope they targeted predators looking to engage in criminal activity,
15:09when a local station dug into the tactics Judd was using,
15:12they found that wasn't exactly the case.
15:14You think you know how these stings go down?
15:17Cops post an ad for an underage teen, wait for predators to respond,
15:21then arrest them when they show up in person.
15:23If I had Grady's World, they'd all go to prison.
15:26But what so many of our local law enforcement leaders are not telling you
15:29is that they've had to try harder and harder over the years to trick men into showing up.
15:3410 Investigates has learned through court documents and arrest reports
15:36that law enforcement is now reaching out themselves to young men
15:40who did nothing more than post an ad on a traditional dating site.
15:43Cops form a rapport, then switch their age,
15:46and try to trick the sometimes hesitant men to keep on talking.
15:49They had me call them, I sat on the phone for an hour with a grown woman
15:55who was talking to me in a very seductive manner.
15:59He was 22 when he had his first and only run in with the law.
16:02He thought he was talking to a 26 year old online who even sent this photo, wedding ring and all.
16:07But after baiting him in, she switched her age from 26 to 13.
16:11Joseph thought she had to have been kidding, so he took her up on her offer to meet.
16:15I walked into a house and was thrown into handcuffs.
16:18He's serving two years of house arrest, then the equivalent of a life sentence,
16:22since he's now labeled a sexual offender.
16:24Yeah, but that really doesn't feel like a slam dunk for justice there, does it?
16:28He posted an ad online looking for an adult, then talked to an adult on an adult site,
16:33and then got understandably confused when that adult suddenly reversed big to themselves.
16:38Especially given he'd already been sent this photo, which is obviously of a grown woman.
16:42Wedding ring aside, she's got the face of someone who knows what a Roth IRA is.
16:47But while the crimes in these operations can be made up, the punishments can be very real.
16:52And not just when it comes to sex stings.
16:54The ATF for years did so-called stash house stings, where basically undercover agents would recruit a group of people
17:00to rob a non-existent stash house full of drugs, with the promise of huge amounts of money.
17:05Over the years they arrested over a thousand people in these sorts of stings,
17:08like these men who walked right into the trap.
17:11Stun grenades startle three young men near Chicago as police move in.
17:16They thought they were going to rob a drug stash house.
17:18Instead, they got busted. A fake scenario set up by the ATF to get hardened criminals off the street.
17:25Yeah, they lured a bunch of people into a car under false pretenses, and then sprang a nasty surprise on
17:30them.
17:30It's almost as bad as accidentally hailing the cash cab under no circumstances, by the way.
17:36Do you hear me? The only way I'm being transported in that thing is if you kill me and stuff
17:40me in the trunk.
17:42And while police will claim things like those catch people who'd commit violent crimes anyway,
17:47I'm not so sure about that.
17:49Reporters looked into that case and found that this guy not only had no convictions for violent offenses,
17:54he clearly didn't know what he was doing.
17:57USA Today found this small-time criminal in this case showed up with a rusty gun and bullets that didn't
18:03fit.
18:04His punishment? Looking at 25 years in jail.
18:07Yeah, apparently that gun was so old it'd be made sometime before World War I.
18:12And a rusty old gun with bullets that don't fit clearly shouldn't justify sending a man to prison for 25
18:18years.
18:19At best, it should be the comic relief character in a Pixar movie where a bunch of talking guns learn
18:23the value of found family.
18:26And the thing is, judges may not have a lot of room for leniency in cases like that,
18:30thanks to mandatory minimum sentencing laws which trigger based on the severity of the crime.
18:35And because the ATF's making the crime up in the first place,
18:39they can make sure it meets mandatory minimums by inventing drug amounts that trigger long sentences,
18:44or pressuring targets into doing things that increase the penalty.
18:47In one sting out of Wichita, ATF agents suggested the felon take a shotgun, saw it off,
18:53and bring it back to them, even providing instructions on how to do it.
18:56That sawed-off gun then allowed them to charge the man with a more serious crime.
19:00And if you think, well, hold on, isn't all this entrapment?
19:04You would think so.
19:05But it turns out the legal bar for proving entrapment is incredibly high.
19:10One big reason is that in court, prosecutors simply have to show that you're doing something you'd have been
19:15predisposed to do anyway, and depending on your case, things like prior convictions and drug addiction could qualify.
19:21Often, all they have to show is that you are willing to commit the crime.
19:24But a key reason people can be willing to do that is because they've just been offered a lot of
19:29money,
19:30all of which makes you feel pretty predatory that these things can actively target low-income communities.
19:35In California, a federal judge even accused ATF agents of trolling poor neighborhoods for suspects.
19:42Investigations have also found stings disproportionately target minorities.
19:46Now, one that looked at seven years of stash house stings in the greater Chicago area,
19:50found that of the people charged in them, 92% were black or Hispanic.
19:55And when a retired ATF agent was asked to explain why they chose certain areas, his answer wasn't great.
20:01Why do a stash house investigation in Englewood as opposed to some other place?
20:06Well, we don't. We do them anywhere that we find that there's people that are willing to participate in that
20:11level of violence.
20:12Those are people we're going to want to talk to.
20:14Again, this is a kill-or-be-kill proposition. It doesn't matter if you're in Englewood, the West Side, Detroit,
20:22New Orleans, anywhere.
20:24Any community where we can find those violent people within that community, then we'll provide them with this opportunity.
20:30Huh. What a fascinating off-the-top-of-your-head list that was.
20:36Englewood, the West Side, Detroit, or New Orleans, all fun fact, majority black areas.
20:41He's only one step away from adding Wakanda to that list.
20:45And disproportionate targeting has been baked into stings from the very beginning.
20:48Remember the fake mafia guys buying fenced goods?
20:51It rounded up about 120 people, although most were not experienced traffickers,
20:55but unemployed black men who had heard about the high prices being offered at the warehouse
20:59and had decided to steal something.
21:02Flash forward to 2018, and law enforcement in Chicago were using a Bates truck
21:05that they filled with Nike sneakers and parked in an impoverished neighborhood.
21:09Something that justifiably infuriated community members.
21:14Instead of y'all chasing crime, you're trying to create crime.
21:17On this YouTube video, posted by anti-crime activist Charles McKenzie,
21:21outraged residents call that entrapment.
21:23Y'all baiting out y'all kids?
21:24It's a Bates truck, man.
21:25Bates truck.
21:28I think this is bogus, and y'all shouldn't be entrapment black kids.
21:32I think it's bogus.
21:32It's real crimes being committed.
21:34Why do you gotta do this?
21:35Why don't you go preach to somebody else?
21:37Put this in your neighborhood.
21:39Yeah, fair point.
21:40I know it's a little hard to tell what the cop dropped on the ground there,
21:44but from context, I'm gonna just guess it's his dignity.
21:47But it is not just racial or economic targeting.
21:50Stings can also sweep up people who might be easier for cops to manipulate
21:53due to mental illness or disabilities.
21:56Just listen to these parents of an autistic teenager in California
21:58tell the story of how some happy news from school
22:01quickly took a turn for the worse.
22:03He told me that he met a new friend in art class,
22:06and I was completely amazed by that.
22:08It seemed like they were having these great conversations back and forth,
22:12or what seemed typical for a teenager because there was such a furious amount of texting going on.
22:18But those texts weren't just friendly teenage banter.
22:21Instead, their son's new friend was pressuring him to buy marijuana.
22:24And this new friend wasn't just a teenager.
22:26He was an undercover cop who went by the name of Daniel Briggs.
22:29It took the Snodgrass' son three weeks to buy half a joint of pot off a homeless man.
22:34A few weeks later, armed policemen walked into his classroom
22:37and arrested him in front of his peers.
22:3922 students were arrested in the drug sting.
22:42Most of them were special needs students.
22:44That is appalling.
22:46And for what it's worth, their son only got the joint because
22:49his cop friend told him he was always in trouble with his strict mom
22:52and was super stressed, that's why he really needed it.
22:55So it seems that cop was truly living by Mr. Rogers' famous advice,
22:59look for the helpers so you can arrest them for weed possession.
23:03And in a sign of just how much the media uncritically lapsed these stories up,
23:08this is how those arrests got covered on the local news.
23:11Riverside County Sheriff's deputies have smashed an illegal drug ring
23:15operating out of three high schools in Temecula.
23:1822 students were taken into custody.
23:20It was like 21 Jump Street, like...
23:22Deputies say during the investigation they seized all types of drugs,
23:25meth, cocaine, LSD, and ecstasy.
23:28Chaparral High School also had students escorted by police off campus.
23:32This picture shows one of five arrests made there.
23:35That kid on the screen there was the one who spent weeks
23:38trying to buy half a joint for his friend because he was worried about it.
23:41But I can see why the news didn't lead with that angle.
23:44Cops bust massive drug ring is a much cooler story
23:47than cops manipulate slash arrest autistic teen.
23:50And it goes way beyond school drug busts.
23:53An investigation into another ATF practice of setting up fake stores
23:56to buy drugs and guns found them repeatedly manipulating people with disabilities.
24:00In one case, agents set up a fake smoke shop in Portland
24:04and paid a 19-year-old who was mentally disabled and his friend
24:07to promote their store by, and this is true,
24:10getting a large tattoo on their necks of the fake shop's emblem,
24:13which was a giant squid smoking a joint.
24:16Which is utterly despicable.
24:19And when a judge later reprimanded the government lawyer for that,
24:22I'd argue she did it in far too casual a manner.
24:26But the agent, it was government money that was used to pay for the tattoos?
24:29I believe so.
24:31Uh, could you send a message back to, uh, which agency was doing it?
24:36Uh, ATF.
24:37That, uh, it's really a bad idea.
24:40Um, nothing unlawful about it, but, uh, not a good idea.
24:44Not a good idea. Look, there is a time to be polite,
24:48but finding out agents just use taxpayer money
24:50to tattoo a teen with mental disabilities is not it.
24:54In fact, I looked up that exact situation in Emily Post's Book of Etiquette
24:57and her advice just says,
24:58fuck those fuckers sideways with a rusty fork.
25:01I didn't say that. Emily Post did. So you know it's official.
25:05And if it wasn't enough for cops to prey on disabled or desperate people,
25:08there is one more way they can make things easy on themselves with stings,
25:11and that is by using confidential informants, or CIs.
25:15Basically, people they convinced to go undercover on their behalf.
25:18Sometimes by paying them, but often by taking people
25:21they've already arrested and pressuring them to work as CIs
25:24to obtain their freedom. As this ex-cop readily explains,
25:28using these sources can really speed things up
25:31when it comes to making a case.
25:32If you had not been able, personally, to use confidential informants,
25:36would you have been as effective?
25:39Nowhere near as effective.
25:40Do you really feel you need this?
25:42Oh, I know I would not.
25:43I may have to watch a house for days or weeks
25:46to establish probable cause.
25:48My informant goes in and makes a buy out of it,
25:50and I have my probable cause in five minutes.
25:52Look, I will concede that man in particular
25:55is going to have a hard time going undercover,
25:57because if you showed me that guy
26:00and gave me three guesses what he does for a living,
26:02they'd be in order.
26:03Cop, cop, and guy who plays cop in porn.
26:07And the appeal for police in CIs is obvious.
26:10They're people who may already be known and trusted
26:12in their community, and crucially, as civilians,
26:14they're subject to even fewer rules and restrictions
26:17than cops regarding conduct during an investigation.
26:20But there are some obvious issues here.
26:22First, because CIs can be paid or working under the threat
26:25of jail time, they can be under huge pressure
26:28to produce whatever info cops need,
26:30whether it is reliable or not,
26:32meaning they might well fabricate information.
26:34Also, cops can look the other way
26:36at crimes their CIs have committed
26:38or even continue to commit while they are working for them.
26:41And finally, if you're thinking pressuring untrained civilians
26:43into doing the job of undercover cops
26:45feels like it could end badly,
26:47you're right about that.
26:48There have been multiple stories of CIs being assaulted
26:51or murdered in the course of working for the police.
26:53In fact, as this expert points out,
26:55there are a whole host of issues CIs raise,
26:58but the limited nature of disclosure on these operations
27:00means we don't know the full extent of any of them.
27:03There is no law enforcement entity or official
27:07in this country that knows how many informants there are,
27:11how many crimes they solve,
27:14and how many crimes are tolerated by law enforcement
27:18by the informants that they run.
27:20Exactly. And it is probably not a great sign
27:23that we have less information about confidential informants
27:26than we do about how many toilets Meghan Trainor
27:28and her spy kid husband have.
27:30And it's not just information on confidential...
27:32You know what? I don't think I was actually clear about that.
27:34They have two.
27:34They have two toilets right next to each other
27:37so they can piss and presumably shit together
27:40without breaking eye contact.
27:42That is from their old house they've since moved
27:44and are opting for a, quote,
27:46knees-to-knees setup.
27:48Yeah. I don't like knowing this about them either,
27:51but at least we're on the same page now.
27:54Anyway, it's not just information on confidential informants.
27:58Public data on stings in general is extremely limited,
28:01partly because they're usually not subject to public disclosure laws.
28:04And that, mixed with a near limitless ability
28:07for cops to target anyone they want,
28:09is a truly dangerous combination.
28:11And if you want to see everything that we've discussed tonight
28:13in one place, just look at counter-terrorism stings.
28:16After 9-11, the FBI went hard
28:18in trying to preemptively stop the next big terror attack.
28:20One hallmark of this involves stings targeted at Muslim communities.
28:25And these cases resulted in a lot of convictions.
28:27A survey two years ago found that out of 992 terrorism defendants
28:31since 9-11, just three have been acquitted,
28:33and four have seen their charges dropped or dismissed,
28:36giving the Justice Department a near-perfect record of conviction
28:39when it comes to terrorism cases.
28:41But that same report also found that the majority of defendants
28:45had no direct connection to terrorist organizations at all,
28:48and over a third had been caught up in FBI stings.
28:52And some of those were incredibly dicey.
28:55Like the case of these four men in Newburgh, New York,
28:57who the FBI claimed planned to attack synagogues and an airport.
29:01And at the time, they trumpeted the arrests as a huge deal.
29:04We have breaking news. The FBI says it has thwarted a terror plot.
29:09Federal investigators say the suspects are four men
29:11with a shared hatred for America.
29:14According to the FBI, the four men intended to carry out their plan today.
29:19The good news here is that our FBI and our NYPD did a very, very good job.
29:25The fact that we've been able to penetrate these groups early on,
29:30they were being monitored for close to a year.
29:33This is truly a textbook example of how a major investigation should be conducted.
29:39That sounds pretty impressive, doesn't it?
29:42But you should know, while friend of the Bailey's Chuck Schumer there
29:45was bragging that the FBI was able to penetrate the group very early on,
29:49the reason for that is they're the ones who put the group together in the first place.
29:53The entire plan was concocted by the FBI.
29:56So I guess it really was textbook if the textbook was called
29:59how to solve crimes when you're the one doing them.
30:02The truth is, none of the four men arrested were militants.
30:05They were, however, impoverished individuals,
30:07one of whom had severe mental health issues.
30:09They were recruited by an informant
30:11who promised them huge financial inducements to carry out the plot,
30:14including $250,000 free holidays and expensive cars.
30:18And that informant then did everything for the men,
30:21from getting them missile and bombs,
30:22to teaching them the tenets of radical Islam.
30:25One of their attorneys actually summed up the whole situation pretty succinctly.
30:28The government conceded a trial that these four defendants never had a plan,
30:34never had done this before, had no technology ability to this,
30:38had no access to these kind of weapons,
30:40had no access to the money to make these kind of bombs,
30:43had no access to terrorists to come up with the ideas,
30:46had no access to anything, even cars.
30:50These four defendants were no more capable of firing a Stinger missile
30:54or creating a bomb, then, you know,
30:58Tony the Tiger could make a bomb Frosted Flight's box.
31:01Yeah, that is both infuriating and completely true,
31:04right up to his claim about Tony the Tiger,
31:07because I know this isn't the point.
31:09Tony the Tiger is a fictional character,
31:10therefore, in his world, he is capable of anything,
31:13including bomb making.
31:14Now, do I believe the good folks at Kellogg's
31:17would put a bomb maker on their cereal box? No.
31:20But could Tony conceptually build a bomb in the universe he inhabits?
31:24Of course he could, and by that logic,
31:26you can make the case that he was actually more equipped to do terrorism
31:29than these people the FBI railroaded for no fucking reason.
31:33Ultimately, the men were sentenced in 2011
31:35to a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison.
31:38Although, three years ago, the judge in their case
31:40granted a motion for compassionate release,
31:42calling their conduct heinous,
31:43but acknowledging the real lead conspirator
31:46was the United States.
31:48Which, depressingly,
31:49is pretty much modern world history in a sentence.
31:52And you can see just how tempting it is
31:55for law enforcement to do this,
31:56especially whenever there is a panic
31:58about a certain population.
32:00More recently, it has been immigrants.
32:02You may remember when Trump and the media
32:03were freaking out about that video
32:05that supposedly proved Trend Aragua gangs
32:07were taking over Colorado apartment complexes.
32:10It was undeniably a frightening image.
32:12And in the wake of that,
32:13the ATF ran a sting operation in that town
32:16with undercover agents offering large sums of money
32:18to Venezuelan immigrants
32:19to procure them guns and drugs.
32:22And last summer, DOJ officials called a press conference
32:24to proudly show off the results.
32:26In a matter of minutes,
32:27we learned this was far more than a news conference
32:30about arrests, drugs, and guns.
32:34The 10-month undercover operation produced 30 arrests,
32:37including three described as TDA leaders,
32:39along with five other alleged TDA members.
32:43The others labeled as actively involved
32:45in TDA criminal activity.
32:48TDA has brought its terrorism to the United States.
32:51TDA is real, it is dangerous,
32:53and we have made prosecuting TDA a priority
32:55in the District of Colorado.
32:57Okay, so there is a lot to unpack there,
32:59from the elaborate work
33:00that went into their massive gun diorama
33:03to what is in those baggies
33:05because it looks to me like pink panther jizz.
33:07But the thing is,
33:08as one reporter since put it,
33:10the results of that sting in court
33:12have failed to back up the hype
33:14because filing suggests
33:15most of the people charged
33:16weren't actually gang members at all,
33:18but a loose collection of impoverished
33:19and desperate immigrants
33:20drawn in by offers of cash.
33:22In fact, when it comes to those firearms,
33:24it's worth knowing many of the drugs and guns
33:26weren't in the defenders' possession
33:28before the government got involved.
33:30So the Feds basically dangled money
33:32in front of a bunch of desperate people,
33:33said, go get us guns,
33:35and they did it.
33:36And all that really proves
33:37is that for enough money,
33:39you can basically get people to do anything.
33:41Which, not for nothing, was, I believe,
33:42also the official slogan
33:43of the Riyadh Comedy Festival.
33:45The point here is,
33:48the long history of police things
33:50has far too often left us
33:52with a bunch of fake crimes
33:54from manufactured criminals
33:55resulting in very real punishments.
33:57And look, I am not saying
33:59the crimes you've seen people
34:01arrested for tonight don't happen.
34:02Of course they do.
34:03People do sell drugs in schools,
34:05traffic guns, planned terror attacks,
34:07and molest children.
34:08And those crimes should be investigated.
34:10The problem with stings is,
34:12they're an easy way for police
34:14to rack up arrests
34:15and sell the illusion
34:16that they're addressing these crimes
34:17even when that may not
34:19actually be the case.
34:20Remember that county in Florida
34:22where Grady Judd loves
34:23to hold press conferences
34:24about his online sex things?
34:25It's currently being sued
34:27by this woman,
34:27who came to them at age 12
34:29because she'd been sexually abused
34:30by her adoptive father for years.
34:33The investigation by Judd's department
34:35was an absolute disgrace.
34:37The detective who handled her case
34:39failed to collect key evidence,
34:40and as her supervisor later wrote,
34:42conducted an interview of the girl
34:43using inappropriate questions
34:44and statements.
34:46Judd's department ultimately wound up
34:48charging the girl
34:49with giving false information
34:50to a law enforcement officer
34:51for which she was placed on probation
34:52and also made to write these letters
34:55of apology to both her abuser
34:57and the sheriff's office.
34:58It was only after she was abused again,
35:01during which she had the presence of mind
35:03to take photos and video
35:04of the incident on her phone,
35:05that her abuser was finally arrested
35:07and sentenced to 17 years in prison,
35:09which is clearly infuriating.
35:12She basically had to do that department's work
35:14for them.
35:15And it makes you think
35:16that maybe,
35:17Grady Judd's office
35:18would have been a little better
35:19at protecting an actual child
35:20if they weren't spending all day
35:22pretending to be one online.
35:24Now, Judd never responded to us
35:26when we asked him about this,
35:27but apparently,
35:28I still have to tell you,
35:29that they've called that woman's lawsuit
35:31frivolous and baseless.
35:32And I don't know, man,
35:34when you've made a literal child
35:36write a letter of apology to her rapist,
35:38I wouldn't be throwing the word frivolous around.
35:40I might just shut the fuck up about everything
35:43for the rest of my fucking life.
35:45But I guess reasonable people
35:47can agree to disagree there.
35:49And when you put all this together,
35:52it's hard not to conclude
35:53that Sting's might actually be doing
35:55more harm than good.
35:56So, what do we do?
35:58Well, I would argue,
35:59at the very least,
36:00cops should be doing
36:01much less of them.
36:02And ideally,
36:03none of the Stings
36:04where the goal is basically
36:05find anybody for anything.
36:07As one expert put it,
36:08if we're gonna do Stings,
36:10they should be
36:10narrowly focused on individuals
36:12who law enforcement
36:12have credible evidence,
36:14may be planning to commit
36:15a serious or violent crime imminently,
36:17or who've already done so,
36:18and are planning to do so again.
36:20Which seems right to me.
36:22Because as it stands,
36:23police seem utterly addicted to Stings,
36:26even though, for what it's worth,
36:27making up imaginary crimes
36:29and arresting people for them
36:30isn't law enforcement,
36:31it is theatre.
36:32In fact, the one reform
36:34that might actually be
36:35within all our control right now
36:37is to try and remember
36:38that we are all the audience
36:39for that theatre.
36:41So, if you are serving on a jury,
36:43or work in the media,
36:44or you see a story on TV
36:45about a sting operation,
36:46it's worth questioning
36:47what role law enforcement
36:49played in creating the crime
36:50that they just supposedly stopped.
36:53Honestly, we first started
36:54looking at this story
36:55a few years ago,
36:56and it has changed
36:57how I've viewed
36:58every sting story
36:59that's made headlines since.
37:00Remember when
37:01that group of men
37:01were arrested for trying
37:02to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer?
37:04Guess how many
37:05confidential informants
37:06seem to help that plot along?
37:07I'll give you a clue.
37:08It is a lot more
37:09than you would like.
37:11And you don't have to
37:11sympathize with these men
37:13or agree with their views
37:14to wonder if that plan
37:16could have even gotten
37:16off the ground
37:17if there hadn't been
37:18as many as a dozen
37:19confidential informants involved
37:21and two undercover federal agents.
37:23The point here is,
37:24cops have been getting away
37:26with bullshit stings
37:27for far too long
37:28and we just cannot
37:29let this slide anymore.
37:30In fact,
37:31there's really only
37:32one type of cop sliding
37:33that I am completely
37:35on board with.
37:36And I think we all know
37:38what it is.
37:43Fuck you, Paul Thomas Anderson.
37:45That is the best picture
37:46of any goddamn year
37:48right there.
37:48That is our show.
37:49Thanks so much for watching.
37:51Good night.
38:08Good night.
Comments