'Outright wrong' for cops to create a 'sinful situation,' troll Web

Editor:

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Barry L. Paschal's May 27 column excerpt regarding Michael Adam's arrest - resulting from his attempt to arrange sex with a fictional 13-year-old girl who was actually a New York cop - should warn all of us that not only can law enforcement arrest citizens for attempts at crime, but they can create the situation encouraging citizens to put illicit desires into criminal action.

We all, with the exception of pedophiles, abhor any adult engaging a real child in a sexual situation and we rightfully agree such activity is a prosecutable crime.

Paschal's column questions Adam's situation from a legal and intellectual view, asking how Adam could have attempted sex with someone who did not exist.

No victim! A profound question which needs the attention of our legal system! I would like to comment on this situation from the angle of morality. When the police officer assumed the fictional persona of a 13-year-old girl, encouraging a 50-year-old male to attempt to fulfill his sexual fantasy of sex with a very young girl, wasn't he (the cop) guilty of creating a sinful chain of events in Adam's mind?

Had no 13-year-old popped up on Adam's computer, it follows that no crime could have taken place at that time. Adam may have had the propensity, but the New York cop provided the conditions for Adam to act out on his propensity.

Law enforcement's use of entrapment is morally questionable in and of itself. But it's outright wrong to create a sinful situation and troll the Internet in an attempt to entice someone into fulfilling his or her sinful fantasies.

Gene L. Rickaby

Martinez