Insane 20/20 Report About A Young Woman Killed By Police Negligence
Sorry to be SeriousGum, but this 20/20 story is so incredibly messed up and the most astonishing thing I've seen on TV this week: Two months ago, a 23 year old in Tallahassee, Florida named Rachel Hoffman was arrested for possession of marijuana and offered a deal by the Tallahassee police: all charges would be dropped if Rachel went on a sting operation and met up with two (completely unrelated and unknown to her) drug dealers to buy a gun and a shit ton of ecstasy. Facing up to four years in jail, Rachel agreed, but the police bungled the entire thing and LOST TRACK OF HER during the sting, and the drug dealers promptly murdered her with the gun the police had set her up to buy. And the police are actually trying to defend their actions. Tallahassee is my hometown, but I don't think that's why this story shocked me. The full video (15 min) is here.
Posted by Lindsay at 3:30 PM in The News
Tags: 20/20
I'm throwing a wet blanket on this, here it comes....On a logical and technical level, the police made mistakes; however, this is not a sympathetic case study of a victim. Uneducated, poor, and desperately addicted people become police dupes every day. Rachel was charming and SO full of potential, and her death was sad, but she matched none of the adjectives above. This is not the best example if the purpose is to shine a light on how the police can be crazy assholes. And I agree, they can be crazy assholes, to the effect that they cause more harm than they seek to prevent.
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I can see what your saying, but I still think this is a good example of police negligence and cops being assholes. Especially when you take into consideration the fact that she had so few drugs when she was caught, the emotional blackmail that was (allegedly) used to get her to agree to the bust, and the lack of any kind of training.
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On an unrelated note, icanread, where did you get that pic of that amazingly cute praying mantis?!?!?!?!
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Lol thanks, it was my computer background for a while (it's now a mom and baby zebra). Stumble showed it to me, it was on Flickr, although I can't remember the exact name/user right now.
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It's an ok example. Choosing the right example is important. There was a major tax law case in Canada, where a working mother claimed that The Law prejudiced her. She was a single mother...who worked at a top tier law firm...the Supreme Court of Canada said; "Go on wit ya!", and I would tend to agree. But the principle of her situation, I still think there's validity.
It's important to choose a good illustration of your principle.
That is, if you really want to get anything done.
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I will say that this story suffers from pretty white girl victim syndrome.
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Too fucking bad. She got caught (for something pretty petty, but still), and she tried to weasel her way out of it by cooperating with the cops. There's nothing honorable about trying to get other people in trouble.
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Yeah, there's nothing honorable about trying to get two murders off the streets. You preach that shit, brother!
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A real tragedy. But yeah, I have a hard time believing Lil' Johnny Stossel or Brian Ross would get so worked up over a young black male buying crack who got used as a pawn by an incompetent police force. Maybe because it happens every other day? And young white women from good homes fresh from college make more TV-friendly tragedies b/c you know, man bites dog. Now if she'd gone missing, we could work up some real ratings...
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It's hard to look beyond the fact that people who are not young, affluent, and white are screwed by law enforcement everyday; however, there is absolutely NO doubt that the police were totally negligent in that case.
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No doubt the police were at fault and should answer for their mistakes, and I don't blame the mom for making this into a national shit-storm. It's just a matter of what gets attention in our country and what doesn't is kind of funny. And by funny, I mean racist and tragic.
Also, that police chief should have never agreed to be on camera. He looks like what Central Casting would send you if you asked for bumbling official.
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