Police stings are great because they're easy to set up (just stand by a subway emergency exit!), guaranteed to work, and almost always nab New York's hardest psychopaths. But state assemblywoman Grace Meng is tired of fielding complaints from her criminal constituents and is trying to ban one sting in particular: Operation Lucky Bag. "This practice by the NYPD just discourages people from seeing something and saying something. It also discourages people from being Good Samaritans," Meng tells the Daily News.
Lucky Bag involves police leaving a "bag in a public location filled with valuables such as an iPod or cash," so when someone picks it up, BINGO! Summons! They'll make their quotas in no time. However given that the law states that people have 10 days to return lost property to its owners or the police department, a civil liberties attorney says people who are caught in the sting should "pursue a lawsuit for false arrest. The program is unjust and it should be discontinued." Yeah but who do you return a baby alligator to? That has "Billy's 10th Birthday" written all over it!
Meng's bill would "prohibit enticement to possess stolen property," which to us sounds like a ban on bike stings as well as those lethal hipster and bridge and tunnel traps. Sure, there have been some hiccups regarding lawsuits, and Lucky Bag has been suspended before, but when will New Yorkers wake up and realize how effective these stings really are? Maybe we could have caught Bin Laden years ago if we had left a bag full of porn and Viagra outside his cave!
