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 ...
No you are arguing with your own comments?
English, please.
Did you miss reading the article or have you confused this with another case? I am referring to the person who fell off an embankment with a broken back and heel and was subsequently tasered 19 times by the police. Capeesh?
Well by all means then, kill him! The fact that he sitting unarmed in a vehicle means nothing! (This will save us from criminals). After you get done with that try to find a granny or child to taser. That works too
that quote by Sir Thomas May was on the FBI’s page, acknowledging abuse in the drug informant system.
-you equate a suspect charged with possession of a bag of marijuana to a murderer...since when has a murder suspect ever been used as a C.I.
I suspected you wouldn't grasp the larger concept of due process.
I was right.
Ah yes ROTFLMAO And that’s because of the WOD!!!!
You were welcome. :-)
Let me give you a hint. View drug statistics from the government harshly. (You should already know this)
I'll ask you for a cite. Again.
And the fact that police have xray vision...
Those that make the laws don’t feel that way. Just read some of these threads......alcohol and nicotine and prescription drugs have done more to destroy lives than pot could do in thousands of years.
Was she framing the perps who murdered her?
Like your citeless stories about nameless people on unspecified dates in unknown locations?
They couldn’t have taken a “bullet” moron, he was unarmed.
“These efforts have produced measurable results,’’ he said today, in his weekly radio address. “Since 2001, the rate of youth drug abuse has dropped by 24 percent.’’Ecstasy is off 50 percent, methamphetamines off 64 percent, the report concludes.
Yep.
Why reason enough to kill him, right? The fact that he unarmed, well, that is just a technicality!
Oh, no xray vision? Then the police should be required to have psychics on scene when they arrest a gangbanger with a history of violent assaults on sheriffs.
Trippy.
Yep.
You're like WAY out there, man!
Where is any evidence she was a dealer?
Evidence shows she was a probably a user.
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