The use of cooperating minors by the ABC to purchase alcoholic beverage violates Arkansas Code Annotated § 3-3-203, Purchase or possession by minor, which in part states:
(a) (1) It is unlawful for any person under twenty-one (21) years of age to purchase or have in his or her possession any intoxicating liquor, wine, or beer.
There is no exception to the statue for law enforcement purposes. It might also be argued that parents and/or ABC enforcement agents are violating Arkansas Maltreatment Laws, specifically neglect, by placing these children in potentially dangerous situations and encouraging them and even paying them to break a state law.
A Standford Law Review article says that breaking the law to catch lawbreakers is authorized criminality:
"This practice of authorized criminality is secret, unaccountable, and in conflict with some of the basic premises of democratic policing. And to the extent that authorized criminality presents mixed messages about their moral standing, it undermines social support for the police. While the practice isn’t new, authorized criminality raises fundamental questions about the limits of acceptable police conduct and has been too long ignored…
In fact not only does the ABC encourage these minors to break the law, they encourage them to lie about their age:
NOTICE THE STRIKETHROUGH TEXT |
If the ABC encourages the minors to lie about their age, what else do they lie about? The ABC Enforcement division is headed by a known liar, so it is not unreasonable to think they might encourage lying about trying to purchase alcoholic beverages.
Not only do the minor receive payment and mileage for breaking the law, ABC enforcement agents/police officers get paid "per bust" too!
Not only do the minor receive payment and mileage for breaking the law, ABC enforcement agents/police officers get paid "per bust" too!
THESE FIGURES WERE RELEASE BY THE DFA IN JULY 2015 |
And there is also the possibility that some improper activity might occure between these minors and the ABC Agents. This is a point that former ABC enforcement agent Jerrell Smith:
If an agency will break laws to enforce laws, what else will they do? We know that ABC Enforcement is led by a dishonest and untrustworthy individual who has an established pattern of lying to achieve goals and in a recent local court case a judge stated that tainted ABC Enforcement director Boyce Hamlet posed problems for the ABC because of his character.
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WHAT A JUDGE SAYS ABOUT BREAKING LAWS TO ENFORCE LAWS