One more casuality of the war on drugs. Horrible.

A 23 year old young woman who was acting as a police informant was murdered in Tallahassee over a deal gone wrong.

She was busted with 20 grams of herb, which is a felony in FL. No scales, baggies, or other signs of distribution were found. Less than an ounce of dried flowers for personal consumption, and she is branded a felon. Then for whatever reason she failed to appear in court. So facing multiple felony charges, she agreed to go undercover with police and help them bust some dealers.

They had her attempting to buy 1,500 Ecstasy pills, 2 ounces of cocaine, and a gun. It is disgusting that police can take a vulnerable, down to earth, college stoner and put her in a situation like this. She obviously didn't know what she was doing dealing with hardened violent criminals, and they killed her outside of Tally. She had just graduated with a degree in Psychology.

This news hit me really hard. I have been speaking out against this policy in certain circles for a long time now. It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest violations of human rights in this country since slavery.

I attended Florida State. There's a good chance I walked by this girl on campus, or saw her at a party or something. I also lived as a child in the same area of Clearwater where she grew up. It's just horrible and tragic to me. Her parents are distraught and are forming a foundation in FL which advocates decriminalization and accountability for the use of informants.

Before her disappearance, she called her mom in Clearwater, who she was planning to visit for mother's day, and asked her to pray for her. That she was going to do something dangerous.

This is wrong. Our government is at war with the young people of america, and I don't understand the apathy. Most people think I am wasting my time on this issue, but it's hard for me to even exist in this society with the knowledge that my tax money goes toward targeting and destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of my countrymen, and women, each year.

R.I.P. Rachel Hoffman. I did not know you, but I apologize for the injustice you were dealt. May you be in a better place than here. Much love to you and your family.

In Loving Memory of Rachel Hoffman


Here is an article from the Tallahassee Democrat showing her Eulogy and a student protest of the actions of the TPD.

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080515/NEWS01/805150348

And one more.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article497941.ece

 

that is disgusting

 

Yeah...disgusting and ridiculous.


I hate how MY life is permanently fucked because I sold esctasy to a group of about 15 ravers who already did esctasy anyways..... but one of them got busted, introduced me to a narc... hubby n i both got a felony....
The impact didnt hit me til a couple years ago....
I couldnt even continue volunteering at hospice!!! which I LOVED doing.
so yeah...
Im stuck doing shit jobs with teenagers cause some narc and stupid drug policies....

fucking lame.

 

this is why i dont like oinkers for the most part...

 

Pigs...narcs....

Fuck them all.

Hard.

In the ass.

With a bat.

 

saddest thing I've read in awhile... a girls life for 20 grams of weed? its pathetic.

 

Please God, help us.

 

Yeah I know my story is nothing compared to that story....

wasnt trying to compare...

just saying im personally effected forever by the war on drugs...

a senseless horrible war....

 

No doubt.

 

Yes, this is terrible.

Reading things like this just pisses me off.

I guess getting pissed off over a good cause is not a bad thing though.

 

I imagine the vegetable -matter police don't give a shit about her.Another deal gone bad--oh well,lets move on to the next stoner.Stupid fuckers.

 

A kid here got murdered recently for being a narc, too. No one will ever be charged, lack of evidence, because they laced whatever he bought (dunno if it was weed or a harder drug). It's fucked up, man.

 

Dude, ultimately, didn't these victims mentioned, especially the one by the OP, become snitches, and that's why they were shot? Fuck snitches. I really lose respect for someone who does that. I don't care if they're scared or whatever, fuck snitches.

 

Couldnt her family sue for wrongful death? I mean the cops placed her there, I soppose thats already been discussed.

 

how long do you think you would last, a young girl in a room with two detectives, telling you if you don't do this you're going to prison for 10-15 years, they're going to make sure you're safe, etc etc. though I guess, judging from your post, you must be a hardened criminal and you'd take the years.

 

I'm extremely sorry for this girl and her family. The police should not be putting people into these kind of situations.

However, I tend to agree with BloodyNailPolish on this one, just not in the same harsh tone. If you are going to buy weed, you need to be aware of the possible consequences, even if they are ridiculously harsh. She should also have been aware of the consequences of missing a court date, or at least had a lawyer who could have informed her.

The thing is, if you roll over to save your own ass, sometimes you get fucked. LuckyStripe got her felony conviction because of somebody else who did exactly what this girl did.

I disagree with the whole snitch system. Turning people against others with fear tactics is disgusting. However, I'm sure this girl had a lawyer, and yet she CHOSE to go undercover to save herself.

The moral of the story. Be careful, whatever you're doing. If you get caught, be willing to pay the piper. And never, ever, ever, trust a policeman when they have you over a barrel.

This whole thing could have been so easily avoided.

 

seems to me like this poor girl was just a stoner who got unlucky, and what the police did to her was highly unreasonable. first of all, she goes from buying an ounce of ganja to buying 1500 pingers, two ounces of coke and a gun? of course the dealer is going to get suspicious.

about the snitching. unless you are caught with an excessive amount or caught dealing, you should be able to lie yourself out of the interrogation room, in my opinion. denial, drunken blackout, whatever. I imagine the cops capable of sending a 23 year old student to barter for all those drugs and a gun, would also be capable of some pretty outrageous interrogation techniques.

that said, I think most people - including many who hold contempt for snitches - would break down in the same circumstances, if the same kind of black-hearted cops were conducting the interview.

at the end of the day, I don't think this poor girl should be blamed for anything but bad luck. the same exact thing could happen to any one person who smokes weed, if they were unfortunate enough. and that's the main concern to me.

 

I agree that she was unlucky. Extremely unlucky. And I am in no way saying that she deserved what the police did to her in any way. But maybe this can be taken as a lesson by others.

Don't snitch. Don't trust cops who offer you 'safety'. And above all, don't get caught.

RIP.

 

Oh, that's so sad..

 

Look, I am and always have been against snitching. I have always held that in a very low regard. On par with thieves.

But I can't judge in this situation for some reason. I have known too many people like her, how harmless they are, and can understand how scared she must have been. Maybe its because shes a girl. Or that it happened in a familiar area to me. I don't really know. But I have a lot of sympathy here.

I took this course called Psychology and the Law, and learned a lot about coercive tactics the police can legally use, how they can lie, fabricate evidence, etc. Its mindblowing what they can do to 'uphold' the law, and jimmy is right. They have a systematic way of breaking people down. Its hard for me to realistically expect an everyday stoner to be tossed into the legal system in such a way and keep their head about them.

The whole informant process is flawed. It undermines the rule of law, and true justice. Why is it ok for police to let someone off charges, and actually allow them to break laws in order to trap someone else breaking laws with more severe penalties? I thought police were sworn to uphold and enforce the law, yet they allow crimes to be committed in the context of an 'investigation'. Not to mention many agencies have multiple-convicted felons on their payroll as paid informants.

The policies and practices surrounding this prohibition are so destructive to a society that our streets have been warzones for 30+ years with no sign of improvement. Nobody trusts each other, nobody trusts police, people are being killed left and right, put in cages, taken from their families, there are HUGE levels of organized crime due to non-regulation, and the list goes on.

I put all the blame in our Congress and high courts, who have the data and knowledge in front of them, and the resources available to design effective, pragmatic, humanistic policies which do more to protect the overall health and welfare of the citizenry.

There is no way this girl should have been faced with the choice of entering the unfamiliar arena of violence and hard drugs to walk free, or spend months/years in a cage being sexually abused by violent sociopaths.

It is just absolutely disgusting to me.