The War on Drugs is War on Our Children...
I am terribly upset at the death of Rachel Hoffman, a young woman of Tallahassee, who was used by the Tallahassee Police Department to set up a sting operation with drug dealers.
I don’t care if she dealt light drugs, heavy drugs, or whatever. It was horribly inappropriate for older adult male cops to force her into a situation where she was put at risk in order for them to arrest more drug dealers. It resulted in her death, and guilt rests with the police.
I’ve heard from convenience store clerks that TPD officers are claiming that her death was her fault because she didn’t do exactly what they told her to do.
Look, she was 23 years old and scared. She’d had two recent arrests and had been given a few days of jail time, which scared her. She had plans for her life beyond Tallahassee. She was untrained for anything as technical as a sting operation out in the woods with drug dealers by herself.
I am 55 years old, and I could not pull off such a thing. I would be so afraid that I would broadcast my true mission to criminals, who are alert and wary of sting operations. I’m sure this was true for her.
The police need to take 100% blame for this disaster, not blame the young victim. They are trained in the machismo activities of police and military. Young girls, especially young girls with drug issues, are not trained for this highly dangerous and technical work.
Her parents didn’t know she was exposed to this. Her lawyer didn’t know. She was sent to buy drugs heavier than she dealt or used. She was sent to buy a handgun from the same criminals. She was abducted and killed. The cops knew exactly who to look for and found them shortly after they fled from the crime scene. If they knew this much about the two criminals, why did they need the young female decoy?
This war on drugs is war on our children. Whether black or white, middle class or poor, the crazy laws birthed by the Reagan Administration are the wrong approach to the drug situation. As with so many other regressive laws and customs in our prison and police systems, instead of treating the problem, they are amplified in the zeal to win more trophy arrests, to validate the system.
As a mother, an educator, a business owner, a member of the Tallahassee community, I am sick at heart and outraged at Rachel’s death. It was so unnecessary. We’ll never know all the facts, but we should. We should examine this custom of using small-time drug dealers to bring down bigger targets and decide to not allow the police to do this.
Today was Mother’s Day, and I thought of Rachel’s mother all day. I didn’t know Rachel and I don’t know her mother. But I feel the pain and sorrow of every mother who loses a child unnecessarily. Rachel was a beautiful young woman with life ahead of her. What was she doing in the woods with criminals? Was she more afraid of what the police would do to her than the criminals?
This war on our children, in the guise of the War on Drugs, must end. We must become rational in our dealings with drug criminals. We must treat those with drug problems, not expose them to dangerous criminals with harmful intent. Let trained police do their own undercover work. It’s never appropriate to ask our children to do it for them. The police were completely inadequate to protect Rachel once they had sent her into the arms of killers. Shame on them for demanding this terrible price from her.
It does not matter that she was a college graduate. Mature people everywhere understand how immature a 23-year-old still is. Just getting ready for life. Not that wise yet. When I think of a whole battery of older men demanding this from her, my heart goes cold with fear. All I can think is that they were willing to sacrifice her to this extent, to do whatever it takes to meet their own goals. They are sworn to protect the community, and she was a member of the community. Would they send their daughters, sisters, girlfriends, wives into such danger?
Being a marijuana dealer does not train you up for such police work. Sting operations even go wrong when trained police are doing them. Much less, unqualified young adults with no background or training.
There is no mistake she made in the situation that excuses the police from responsibility for her death. They owe all of us a huge admission of their own wrongdoing and a huge apology and a huge promise to not use our children this way again. And the family needs to win a civil lawsuit and receive some level of punitive compensation for the loss of their daughter. It's unfair to them and they will never experience closure. I'll keep them and Rachel in my prayers.
I am terribly upset at the death of Rachel Hoffman, a young woman of Tallahassee, who was used by the Tallahassee Police Department to set up a sting operation with drug dealers.
I don’t care if she dealt light drugs, heavy drugs, or whatever. It was horribly inappropriate for older adult male cops to force her into a situation where she was put at risk in order for them to arrest more drug dealers. It resulted in her death, and guilt rests with the police.
I’ve heard from convenience store clerks that TPD officers are claiming that her death was her fault because she didn’t do exactly what they told her to do.
Look, she was 23 years old and scared. She’d had two recent arrests and had been given a few days of jail time, which scared her. She had plans for her life beyond Tallahassee. She was untrained for anything as technical as a sting operation out in the woods with drug dealers by herself.
I am 55 years old, and I could not pull off such a thing. I would be so afraid that I would broadcast my true mission to criminals, who are alert and wary of sting operations. I’m sure this was true for her.
The police need to take 100% blame for this disaster, not blame the young victim. They are trained in the machismo activities of police and military. Young girls, especially young girls with drug issues, are not trained for this highly dangerous and technical work.
Her parents didn’t know she was exposed to this. Her lawyer didn’t know. She was sent to buy drugs heavier than she dealt or used. She was sent to buy a handgun from the same criminals. She was abducted and killed. The cops knew exactly who to look for and found them shortly after they fled from the crime scene. If they knew this much about the two criminals, why did they need the young female decoy?
This war on drugs is war on our children. Whether black or white, middle class or poor, the crazy laws birthed by the Reagan Administration are the wrong approach to the drug situation. As with so many other regressive laws and customs in our prison and police systems, instead of treating the problem, they are amplified in the zeal to win more trophy arrests, to validate the system.
As a mother, an educator, a business owner, a member of the Tallahassee community, I am sick at heart and outraged at Rachel’s death. It was so unnecessary. We’ll never know all the facts, but we should. We should examine this custom of using small-time drug dealers to bring down bigger targets and decide to not allow the police to do this.
Today was Mother’s Day, and I thought of Rachel’s mother all day. I didn’t know Rachel and I don’t know her mother. But I feel the pain and sorrow of every mother who loses a child unnecessarily. Rachel was a beautiful young woman with life ahead of her. What was she doing in the woods with criminals? Was she more afraid of what the police would do to her than the criminals?
This war on our children, in the guise of the War on Drugs, must end. We must become rational in our dealings with drug criminals. We must treat those with drug problems, not expose them to dangerous criminals with harmful intent. Let trained police do their own undercover work. It’s never appropriate to ask our children to do it for them. The police were completely inadequate to protect Rachel once they had sent her into the arms of killers. Shame on them for demanding this terrible price from her.
It does not matter that she was a college graduate. Mature people everywhere understand how immature a 23-year-old still is. Just getting ready for life. Not that wise yet. When I think of a whole battery of older men demanding this from her, my heart goes cold with fear. All I can think is that they were willing to sacrifice her to this extent, to do whatever it takes to meet their own goals. They are sworn to protect the community, and she was a member of the community. Would they send their daughters, sisters, girlfriends, wives into such danger?
Being a marijuana dealer does not train you up for such police work. Sting operations even go wrong when trained police are doing them. Much less, unqualified young adults with no background or training.
There is no mistake she made in the situation that excuses the police from responsibility for her death. They owe all of us a huge admission of their own wrongdoing and a huge apology and a huge promise to not use our children this way again. And the family needs to win a civil lawsuit and receive some level of punitive compensation for the loss of their daughter. It's unfair to them and they will never experience closure. I'll keep them and Rachel in my prayers.
posted by Luna @ 10:12 PM
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