Posted on 07/25/2008 8:49:03 PM PDT by bamahead
After being caught twice with a "baggie" of marijuana, 23-year old Rachel Hoffman was reportedly told by police in Tallahassee, Florida that she would go to prison for four years unless she became an undercover informant.
The young woman, a recent graduate of Florida State University, was murdered during a botched sting operation two months ago.
"The idea of waging a war on drugs is to protect people and here it seems like we're putting people in harm's way," said Lance Block, a lawyer hired by Rachel's parents.
The Florida Attorney General's office says it is reviewing the procedures and protocol of the Tallahassee police.
"I'm calling her a criminal," Tallahassee police chief Dennis Jones told 20/20, who maintains that both drug dealers and drug users are considered criminals to his department.
Under Florida law, possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana is a felony.
The Tallahassee police chief says Rachel was suspected of selling drugs and she was rightly treated as a criminal.
"That's my job as a police chief to find these criminals in our community and take them off the street, to make the proper arrests," Jones told 20/20.
Rachel's case also is raising questions about how police recruit and use informants in undercover operations.
"There need to be some safeguards here," said Block, the Hoffman family lawyer.
The young woman received no training before being sent to an undercover meeting to buy a large amount of drugs and a handgun from two suspects.
Police says Rachel was killed by the very handgun she was supposed to buy.
"I don't think she understood the risk or danger that she was in," said Block.
Rachel was in a drug court diversion program when she became an informant.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
This is really something else...
This is wrong on too many levels. God forgive us.
I wish I could say I was shocked, but I’m not. One more time: The. Police. Are. Not. Your. Friends. This chief should be fired and face charges.
Something is sadly wrong with the justice system in Florida. I suppose we only read about the bad cases, but there sure are a lot of them.
The leauuuu IS criminal.
Prohibition creates black markets.
Prohibition gave Joe Kennedy mega bucks!!!!
Prohibition today gives MS13 all the money they want!
Capitalism is the best weapon to defeat them. Legalize everything. Flood the market, sink the price/profits. Make the criminals find new employment.
Legalize marijuana plain and simple. It is safer than alcohol.
Well, they did get this cunning criminal off the streets....For ever...
Just Florida?
It ain’t just Florida. Bought allergy medicine lately? Gave them your ID so the info will be collected and then passed onto the DEA who will decide whether or not your allergies are too severe? We’re all suspects now.
Saw a news/documentary that since weed is such the norm in Amsterdam it’s no longer cosidered “cool”.
Legalize marijuana plain and simple. It is safer than alcohol.
Right. The penalties faced for possession and use of marijuana are worse than the harmful effects from the drug. Our current drug laws lead our police departments and courts into illegality and corruption.
Pot should be legal, plain and simple.
“Legalize marijuana plain and simple.”
Mandatory prison time @ hard labor for using it!!
From personal experience, never hire anyone that uses it, they think they are really doing a great job and they aren’t doing squat!
I fired them, no second chance!
You probably have a lot more employees smoking pot than you think. The one you fired was just one who couldn’t control his reality, people like that will screw up their lives with or without pot, if they can’t find a drug to hook onto people like that get dumb about the opposite sex.
I could say the same thing for alcohol users.
Pot is harmless.
that’s the only thing that’ll ruin the U.S. economy quicker than obama
Flame on!
Use the money that would have gone to Dennis Jones and his staff pay and retirements to pay off Rachele parents.
What do the citizens need them for if untrained little girls are doing the work?
Rachel Hoffman lost, her family lost, and the local taxpayers will lose when the Tallahassee police have to pay a multi-million dollar judgment.
“The one you fired “
One, hell over the years I probablu canned 50 usless bastards for using pot.
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I have employees, and I drug test. Pot lasts 14 days in the body,opiates or cocaine burns out in a day or two, same with Meth. Alcohol is gone in hours.
All are so much more dangerous than weed.
It grows naturally, you can’t overdose, it makes you mellow, not manic or crazy or aggressive. Its such a benign drug.
And you probably promoted 150 pot users you never knew about.
Really most pot smokers are just like most beer drinkers, one or two here or there no big deal no interfering with work. Only difference is their buzz screws up their lungs instead of their livers.
What do the citizens need them for if untrained little girls are doing the work?
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Amen.
If she was acting under color of law for these lazy bastards and died due to circumstances unduly put on her, I pray the family sues the crap outta these idiots.
Can we legalize bank robberies while we are at it...
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
That person probably had bigger problems. There are people like you fired/described that don't smoke dope...
Yes they do.
(it is amazing what can be done with an incomplete quote)
About the only thing you can do with an incomplete quote is inform everybody that you’re not actually looking for informed discussion. Thanks for warning us.
How is a bank robbery like pot?
Bank robbery is a forceful action, and is theft.
Pot is a plant, put here by God, it doesn’t kill or harm.
Can we legalize bank robberies while we are at it...
No, but let’s make alcohol illegal, and tobacco, and caffeine and sugar. That will solve a lot of problems.
Let's see, Chief Jones...
You never charged her with a crime. You made a deal with her not to prosecute her, a deal that is not yours to make. If the prosecutor had declined to prosecute her, then that's one thing...but you, sir, had her convicted before even charging her, let alone giving her a chance at trial!
You, Chief Jones, are a criminal, the way I see it. You abused your position; you intimidated, coerced, and blackmailed a citizen with power you claimed but had no right to; and you now have blood on your hands...unless you've wiped them off on your shiny jackboots.
I'm no NORML fan, but I am ever vigilant of these encroachments on liberties.
I was referring to the incomplete quotation of something that I posted, but thanks for sharing.
Not that I agree with the cops, but I call BS on the statement above. Drug users know exactly who they are dealing with.
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didn’t they make alcohol illegal once? something about an amendment?
Thou shalt not steal...
EXACTLY right. Until public servants are made to feel personal liability for their abuses, all that happens when a malicious case occurs is that the taxpayers fine themselves—that is, by having the insurance agencies pay out, insurance rates go up, distributing the sins of the government worker upon all taxpayers.
I have nothing against pot. I don’t use myself, but some of my friends do. Some of them I would rather see smoke weed than drink. But the fact remains that it is illegal, same as robbing a bank. And since you brought up God, I could add that the Bible says to follow man’s law as long as it doesn’t interfere with God’s Law.
Not legalize, DECRIMINALIZE! There is a difference.
see post 43
And man’s law can be changed...
didn’t they make alcohol illegal once? something about an amendment?
That’s the point.
You have her convicted without trial. Are you sure she was guilty?
When they come for you in the middle of the night and tell you that they are hauling you off to the gulag unless you turn in your friends who are guilty of having dangerous thoughts, do you think they will admit there was no evidence of your crime?
It’s not for the guilty that we operate in this way—it’s to prevent abuse against the innocent.
Yes it can, but it hasn’t yet.
Worked out real well too. The legacy of that little experiment is the Mafia and the Kennedy family.....
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