Well, some legal systems think using dirty tricks undermines the integrity of the justice system. - Edit 1
Before modification by Tim at 06/08/2011 03:39:01 PM
That would make undercover work a lot hard to pull off don't you think? In fact the courts have ruled that the cops can lie to you in order to get a confession. I don't understand why you can see this is a much better solution than wasting man hours and endangering police officers trying to serve these warrants. If they were tricked into committing a crime you might have a point but these are men with outstanding warrants for their arrest.
Apparently Alabama's is not one of them.
I must confess I don't know much about undercover work and what (if any) special authorisations/checks and balances it requires, but I would have thought it would only be used where necessary. The use of undercover police is obviously more justified when you're trying to infiltrate a terrorist cell or a mafia than in a case like this.
I realise they are men with outstanding warrants for their arrest, and that's precisely why I don't understand why they didn't just go round to their house. If there was good reason to believe the officers would be in danger (e.g. they went round once before and had a shotgun pointed in their face) then fair enough to use a trick.
About your comment that "the world isn't fair": of course it isn't, but the whole point of having a legal system is to make it fair as much as possible. That's why it's called "justice". You might as well try to defend yourself in court against a burglary charge by saying "Yeah I broke into his house and stole his TV, but so what? Life isn't fair. Quit being such a crybaby."