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 ...
Law enforced by force of arms ended slavery in America, not libertarian BS.
You know, I was following your posts with relative ambivalence up until I read that.
Seig Heil Adolf.
Now, if it's on your property, and on your time, I have no problem with that... The firing/dismissal thing. Execution on the other hand....
And I suppose you're one of those employers who does, or would like to, control every aspect of your employee's lives outside of work as well. What they eat, drink, smoke, etc..
First you quote Thomas J. DiLorenzo who quotes Boller’s book, then as backup to DiLorenzo you offer Boller’s book. LOL
The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations still disagrees.
Although, I must admit had it been DiLorenzo’s personal research, I’d be more inclined to believe him than other Lincoln historians.
The quotes from Bill Buckley and Milton Friedman are not disputed by any scholars.
Figures. Hitler was a meth addict.
You haven't named ANY Lincoln historians.
Why have the beer and booze wars stopped? How come there are no Al Capone and Joe Kennedy style bootleggers?
Almost all the veterans of this war will tell you in private, it's not only a waste of time, but a waste of tax payers money, it's dangerous to all, including those not involved, it's a waste of law enforcement resources.
Making most this stuff legal will put an end to the organized drug trade, most all drug dealers, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of violent gangs that profit and are supported by selling drugs.
America is able to send billions of dollars out of the country to other countries that hate us every year, so we should be able to spend a fraction of that helping those that honestly desire some help if they have a problem. They are Americans after all, not some foreign enemy.
Throwing millions of these non-violent people into cages for drugs, while making other Americans pay higher and higher taxes to house these people in cages, is really a sad farce.
Patients may legally obtain prescription amphetamines, therefore there must be no meth dealers. By your "logic."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, (8 vols.) Roy P. Basler, Ed., Rutgers University Press, 1953.
A Shelf of Lincoln Books: A Critical, Selective Bibliography of Lincolniana by Paul M. Angle
Yeah, that is ridiculous! a violation of my privacy and WHO gets these?
Someone needs to do a test case, a class action suit on this one.
thank you for a sane and reality based post.
Get ready for the Moral Police to flame you! there is no common sense or rational discussion with them. Morever, they leave conservative economics and liberty behind. ha.
So you’re for alcohol prohibition? How many moonshiners are left. Are there as many as pot dealers? Are there as many moonshiners as there are coke dealers?
Are the moonshiners having wars like the beer wars in Chicago, Boston, New York during alcohol prohibition?
Do we need a war on moonshiners too?
the police should not have put an inexperienced young female in such a position. she is not a trained police informer. this is bad police policy.
Name sans quote. Have a point?
Moonshine is illegal everywhere.
move to Holland
good post plus we do not count the “consequences” of imprisoning all these “criminals”. I have a friend I hadn’t seen in some years, who got hooked on crystal meth and was not a “dealer”. In lieu of a mandatory 2 year rehab facility that the state of georgia did not have to pay for he got 10 years prison time!
He didn’t go the informer route. He had a politically ambitious prosecutor and a lousy lawyer.My friend never had a rap sheet and no other “crimes’ except a parking ticket and was a 32 y o college graduate working as a professional.
wow. We can all feel so much safer now that he is off the streets.
Again...the first part of that statement was “I’m told...” the person telling me that was an avid smoker. I’m going on his experience for this one. I personally don’t give a rat’s @ss
So we need a war on moonshine?
Please point to the moonshine wars. Are you saying moonshine is as big a problem as other drugs?
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