INNOCENCE LOST ON BOTH SIDES OF THE LAW

The killing of Rachel Hoffman is coming on heavy to Tallahassee
residents and college students alike. It raises legitimate questions
about the nature of narcotics investigations and how they are
conducted by the Tallahassee Police Department.

Did the TPD truly think that these hardened criminals couldn't tell
the difference between a deal and a set-up? This question stands tall
as the facts of the case are assessed in the short days following the
discovery of Rachel Hoffman's body in Taylor County last Friday.

The circumstances of the case seem clear: A small-time marijuana
dealer, after being apprehended with 23 grams of marijuana in April,
was pressured by TPD investigators into the lion's den with convicted
felons over an extraordinary amount of felonious drugs. TPD
investigators asked her to purchase 1,500 hits of Ecstasy, 2 ounces
of cocaine and a handgun.

TPD is now charged, in the court of public opinion, with shoving the
burden of making a case against known felons on a young, first-time
offender apparently without giving a hoot about what could happen,
should things go wrong. It shows gross negligence that TPD
investigators seem to have never considered the worst-case scenario
of what might happen if Hoffman was not believed, let alone able to
close the deal.

TPD's immediate reaction to public outcry was, "Well, she didn't
follow directions." This makes the department look demonstrably
pathetic and out of touch, and it shows how much apathy and
negligence surrounded the investigators who put themselves in charge
of Hoffman's life when they asked her to meet with Andrea Green and
Daniello Bradshaw.

Hoffman was not a trained, undercover federal agent being asked to
pull off a sting, but rather a 23-year-old FSU graduate who was
extorted by the department with having her life turned upside down,
should she not cooperate and agree to the investigation.

What is the message in this story? Is this a statement from the
department, warning college students that they are as disposable as
toilet paper, should they make a few bad choices (one of which,
obviously, is becoming an informant)?

Or, if TPD simply did not know the nature of the conditions into
which Hoffman was put, then why should Tallahassee-area residents
have any faith that the department, as a whole, is capable of making
much of a difference at all when it comes to protecting the community
from criminals like Hoffman's killers? Clearly the criminal element
has the upper hand until it is far too late, given the outcome of
this operation.

"There is no hunting like the hunting of armed men, and those who
have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for
anything else thereafter," wrote Ernest Hemingway.

Hemingway's quote is extremely relevant and ominous when you consider
that law enforcement's indifference at the loss of life hangs like a
cloud over the justice system in Tallahassee at the moment.

What trust is there to be had for a police department that
disrespects its collegiate populace (both students and parents alike)
in such a disgraceful way?

Early this week, TPD still refused to publicly acknowledge statements
of concern and questions made by Hoffman's parents as to why their
daughter was put into such a deadly situation.

Recently, a TPD homicide detective said about a suspect in the
killing of a gas station attendant, "Whether he meant to murder the
victim or not, had he not intended to rob the victim, the victim
would still be alive." Can the same now be said for TPD's
overzealous, narrow-minded, drug-enforcement detail?

Such is the sad case of one Rachel Hoffman that a truth remains
abundantly clear: The TPD officers involved in this botched operation
have blood on their hands because of either recklessness or apathy.
They single-handedly undermined the integrity of the department at
large, not just among concerned Tallahassee residents but among
parents all over the state and country who once wished to send their
offspring here, but now aren't so sure.