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 b0red5tiff
THE CANDY KING
Registered: 09/16/06
Posts: 7,029
Loc: \m/
Last seen: 3 minutes, 16 seconds
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 Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA]
#8393369 - 05/12/08 04:24 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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link
Margie Weiss took a break from writing her daughter's eulogy this morning so she could express the loss and pain she continues to feel.
"It's been a roller coaster ride, and I've just been blessed with so much love," the Safety Harbor woman said. "Everybody's hands have been lifting me up with their love."
Police say 23-year-old Rachel Morningstar Hoffman's body was found early Friday in rural Taylor County, southeast of Tallahassee, after a two-day search. The Pinellas County woman, a graduate of Countryside High School in Clearwater, was cooperating with the narcotics squad in an investigation when she disappeared Wednesday.
Police say she died after violating protocol while serving as a confidential informant.
Her attorney says police should have spoken with him before allowing Hoffman to serve as an informant.
And her friends and family say she wasn't the kind of person who should have been asked to help build a case against dangerous people.
Hoffman agreed to work with police after being arrested on several drug charges, including possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and possession with intent to sell ecstasy, police spokesman David McCranie said.
She agreed to buy 1,500 ecstasy pills, 2 ounces of cocaine or crack cocaine and a gun as part of the police investigation, The Tallahassee Democrat reported.
Police have said Hoffman didn't follow protocol when she left with Deneilo Bradshaw and Andrea J. Green, who have been arrested. A park location had been set up for the deal, and "a large team" of police was on scene when she told an investigator over the phone that her meeting location had changed, McCranie said.
"We had an investigator telling her not to leave, to stay where you are," he said. "The safety of our citizens and our confidential informants is paramount. But she hung the phone up, and we had no more conversation with her, and that ultimately led to her murder."
Hoffman initially suggested to police that they investigate Green and Bradshaw, McCranie said. Officers now are seeking justice for Hoffman and are working to get homicide charges against Green and Bradshaw, he said.
Legal counsel and the state attorney's office weren't consulted when Hoffman became a confidential informant. It's not an officer's duty to tell lawyers, and police don't routinely speak with the state attorney's office about such things unless the arrest violates a person's probation, McCranie said.
Hoffman's father, Irv Hoffman, declined to comment today, saying he needs time to grieve.
Mike Weiss, Hoffman's stepfather, said he wants police to stop saying Hoffman broke protocol. He asked how Hoffman truly could understand how important protocol is and how an untrained civilian could understand how to protect herself in such a situation.
"The reality is, untrained civilians of any age should not be put in that position by a police force," Mike Weiss said. "They took a 23-year-old relatively naïve person and put her in a life-threatening situation."
Tallahassee police commonly seek out confidential informants, and since so many people want to be one to stay out of trouble, there's no need to twist someone's arm if she doesn't want to be one, McCranie said.
Hoffman appeared to make a good informant because she was 23, mature and an intelligent college graduate who police thought would follow directions well, McCranie said.
Her attorney, Johnny Devine, said he heard police say Hoffman had been shot but that later police wouldn't discuss details of how she had died. When asked by The Tampa Tribune for details on her death, McCranie said that information was unavailable.
After Green and Bradshaw were captured in Orlando, they led police to Hoffman's body, McCranie said.
Bradshaw told Karey Freeman, who is both his stepfather and Green's father-in-law, that Hoffman had been pestering him, trying to get him to make a deal with her.
"The young lady kept coming by, and she kept telling me that this is going to be an easy deal and this is just a [money] transfer. 'I can get the money if you can get the stuff,' " Freeman told the Capitol News Service today.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will serve as the lead agency in the homicide portion of the investigation because the case crosses several jurisdictional lines.
Other agencies will be involved as well, and investigators are continuing to gather evidence, FDLE spokesman Phil Kiracofe said.
One of Hoffman's friends, Ed Sonnenschein of Tallahassee, said Hoffman might have sold marijuana previously but that she was a nice, caring person who didn't deserve to die.
"It's tragic that the police sent a lamb to slaughter," said Sonnenschein, 52. "Rachel liked to act like she was this and that, but if the cops bought her act that she was mature enough to handle it, they're stupider than I thought."
He said word spread quickly after police picked her up last month and that he spoke with her about it. Her name didn't appear on police blotters, so he warned her not to serve as an informant.
"I told her that whatever she had in mind, don't do it," he said. "Whoever she was planning on burning, don't do it."
Carlton Lahmann, another friend, said Hoffman was a small-time drug dealer who never dealt with cocaine or guns.
She had a ton of friends and was an outstanding person who planned to pursue a career in the culinary arts, he said.
Lahmann, 34, said he talked with Hoffman when she was considering being an informant.
"She just had to rat someone out to save herself from going to jail for a long time," he said. "Of course, she was scared. If you've ever met Rachel, she's mentally strong, very bright. But she's very dainty, a very fragile girl. She's not someone you would send in to bust a couple of thugs."
Another friend, Ilana Greenberg, wrote in an e-mail to The Tampa Tribune that Hoffman was the most naturally kind and beautiful person she had ever met.
"Unfortunately, it was Rachel's kindness that led to her death," Greenberg wrote. "It's not that Rachel made a bad decision, or didn't follow safety precautions, it was just that Rachel never thought that it was humanly possible to do to someone what was done to her."
Greenberg said Tallahassee police cared more about catching criminals than they did about the importance of human life.
"They used a beautiful, caring, trusting, and naïve girl and threw her into a world of hate and crime because they knew they could," she wrote. "They knew if anyone would do it, it would be Rachel. If they would have taken five minutes to step back and see Rachel as a person and not as one of their tools, then it goes without saying that Rachel would still be here today."
Margie Weiss spent Mother's Day planning her only child's funeral. Her daughter was so popular, she said, she expects hundreds to attend Tuesday.
The funeral service for Hoffman will be at 11 a.m. at Temple Ahavat Shalom, 1575 Curlew Road, Palm Harbor.
Weiss said she is forming a foundation to push for a requirement for confidential informants to seek legal advice before consenting to undercover work. The foundation also would work to get marijuana convictions decriminalized.
"Her death will make history," she said. "It's a great loss. The only way I can make sense of it is by now having her memory live on."
Hoffman recently graduated from Florida State University, having majored in psychology.
She rode horses, played music, traveled around the world, loved animals, cooked wonderfully and had a smile that lit up a room, Weiss said.
"She healed people with her love. She really did," she said.
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***if you're reading this then you're already asleep***
***if we're gonna kill each other how are we gonna live forever? if we're gonna live forever how are we gonna kill each other?***
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 danknugz81
spiralingdownward
Registered: 02/22/08
Posts: 770
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: b0red5tiff]
#8393760 - 05/12/08 06:30 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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shit like this is why the drug war needs to stop now.
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 Coaster
ChemicalResearcher
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 11,463
Loc: La La Land
Last seen: 2 hours, 42 minutes
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: danknugz81]
#8393784 - 05/12/08 06:36 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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dood this article makes me sick to my stomach
if that was my daughter i would seriously go postal
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andrewss
wünscht säure
Registered: 08/17/07
Posts: 2,773
Loc: ohio
Last seen: 2 days, 12 hours
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: Coaster]
#8393847 - 05/12/08 06:52 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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Thats crazy shit... 
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"Let us add at once that, on the other hand, the existence on earth of an animal soul turned against itself, taking sides against itself, was something so new, profound, unheard of, enigmatic, contradictory, and pregnant with a future that the aspect of the earth was essentially altered. Indeed divine spectators were needed to do justice to the spectacle that thus began and the end of which is not yet in sight - a spectacle too subtle, too marvelous, too paradoxical to be played out senselessly unobserved on some ludicrous planet!"
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HybridprX
Pr0_X indisguise
Registered: 01/29/08
Posts: 389
Loc: Asking to much
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: andrewss]
#8393968 - 05/12/08 07:18 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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Weak links can cutt from the chain and placed to the side, to murder a 23 year old girl turned out by the police is barbaric.
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To walk through the world by ones self, you can't be
Protected... your trust is in whiskey and weed and
Black Sabbath - It's Goddamn Electric.
Pantera
- Support www.fsrc.nl R.I.P Fsrcanada and thank you Shdwstr
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HUBSonDUBS
Master
Registered: 09/01/05
Posts: 746
Loc: Fort Lauderdale & Gainesv...
Last seen: 2 days, 18 hours
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: HybridprX]
#8394151 - 05/12/08 07:59 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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Rachel was a good friend of mine, TPD should have never put her in this situation. This was not the kind of girl that would go out and buy this amount of x, crack and a gun and im sure this is why it was apparent to them that this was a sting.
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No shirt, no shoes, no problem.
Without a care in the world.
ALWAYS LOOKING TO TRADE SYRNGES AND PRINTS!!! PM ME
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Lieutenant_Dan
Veteran
Registered: 05/31/05
Posts: 1,056
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: Coaster]
#8394164 - 05/12/08 08:01 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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Quote:
Coaster said:
dood this article makes me sick to my stomach
if that was my daughter i would seriously go postal
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fapjack
Registered: 07/26/07
Posts: 2,994
Last seen: 9 days, 9 hours
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: danknugz81]
#8394731 - 05/12/08 10:09 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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You hippies have too much compassion for a piece of shit rat.
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pabloescabar
Stranger thanyou
Registered: 05/02/07
Posts: 383
Last seen: 10 hours, 53 minutes
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: fapjack]
#8395019 - 05/12/08 11:43 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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Quote:
fapjack said:
You hippies have too much compassion for a piece of shit rat.
You tell me whose life has more value; Some felon that sells coke and guns, or a recent college grad that actually contributed to society.
I hope you die a very slow and painful death that takes weeks. I hope it is from some gang banger that you didn't feel the need to snitch on when you saw him buying a gun from some kid on the street earlier that day. 
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Bimmin
n00b
Registered: 12/09/07
Posts: 66
Loc: VT
Last seen: 21 hours, 22 minutes
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: pabloescabar]
#8395043 - 05/12/08 11:53 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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She was a high school grad, not a college grad.
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pabloescabar
Stranger thanyou
Registered: 05/02/07
Posts: 383
Last seen: 10 hours, 53 minutes
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: Bimmin]
#8395088 - 05/13/08 12:07 AM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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Quote:
Bimmin said:
She was a high school grad, not a college grad.
Really!? How long have have they been giving out psychology degrees to HS grads? Damn must have not gotten the memo, I feel like such an idiot now, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to keep me informed. You are my hero
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fapjack
Registered: 07/26/07
Posts: 2,994
Last seen: 9 days, 9 hours
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: pabloescabar]
#8395883 - 05/13/08 09:24 AM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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Quote:
You tell me whose life has more value; Some felon that sells coke and guns, or a recent college grad that actually contributed to society.
I hope you never get caught with drugs, pussies like you are why quite a few of my friends are rotting away in prison. Your pretty much saying that its ok to rat on someone if your life as more value. You are the piece of shit, you've probably already narced on someone with that logic. You are obviously a fucking rookie and you shouldn't even be in the drug game.
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nepalnt21
12tnlapen
Registered: 09/14/06
Posts: 102
Last seen: 2 months, 3 days
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: fapjack]
#8395979 - 05/13/08 09:54 AM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
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i sincerely doubt there are many people on this site who would consider themselves a part of "the drug game". people who consider this a "drug game" should fucking rot in prison because they give others that are using substances for reasons other than money a bad name. fuck these fucking dealer pricks, and fuck the dickhead cop bitches that would have a civilian pose as a buyer to catch the dealer assfucks.
when it comes down to it, danknugs posted the smartest post so far.
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pabloescabar
Stranger thanyou
Registered: 05/02/07
Posts: 383
Last seen: 10 hours, 53 minutes
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: fapjack]
#8399093 - 05/13/08 10:56 PM (3 months, 23 days ago) |
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Quote:
fapjack said:
Quote:
You tell me whose life has more value; Some felon that sells coke and guns, or a recent college grad that actually contributed to society.
I hope you never get caught with drugs, pussies like you are why quite a few of my friends are rotting away in prison. Your pretty much saying that its ok to rat on someone if your life as more value. You are the piece of shit, you've probably already narced on someone with that logic. You are obviously a fucking rookie and you shouldn't even be in the drug game.
I have been caught with drugs and the reason was because I got ratted on, so don't you tell me what I'm saying. I'm just sick of people like you that think getting snitched on justifies murder. I'm not defending rats, I'm defending a person that was given a choice of either rat on a couple of low lifes or go to prison and have her life ruined. Ratting on people is fucked up, but from what I have read she didn't have much of a choice. And these pieces of trash weren't just selling drugs they were selling guns. People like you that think drugs are a game have no clue. Talking shit about a dead girl that cant defend herself and I'm the pussy?
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StrandedVoyager
The People's Champ
Registered: 12/09/04
Posts: 2,572
Loc: (202)-456-1414 Call Me
Last seen: 2 hours, 13 minutes
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: pabloescabar]
#8399340 - 05/14/08 12:02 AM (3 months, 23 days ago) |
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The Drug War is awesome. I have little compassion for an informant but I love how the police don't give a goddamn about what happened. Good times.
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Hi 
My god... it's full of stars...
.svg/70px-Flag_of_the_United_States_(upside_down).svg.png)
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johnm214
Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 6,010
Loc: Americas
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: b0red5tiff]
#8399477 - 05/14/08 01:04 AM (3 months, 23 days ago) |
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Quote:
Tallahassee police commonly seek out confidential informants, and since so many people want to be one to stay out of trouble, there's no need to twist someone's arm if she doesn't want to be one, McCranie said.
My ass
Everyone I ever knew that got caught w/ anything besides pot, and many w/ pot, were asked where they got it, who they know, if they want to cut a deal.
The sad thing is this girl might have had a shot at diversion/treatment and then expungment. If not, she'd likely get probation.
Its bullshit trumped up felony possesion charges and collateral consequences that make people w/ drugs desperate and willing to do silly things.
They take a 23 year old girl and set her up to by a shitload of drugs and a gun? WTF? What kind of 23 year old college girl buys a gun and shitloads of X? I don't know any.
If drugs were decriminalized, better, legal, this shit would never have happened, I don't care what the bullshit con artists say.
This is sick
Rachael is on the right
Please tell the city how you feel about this, do one thing today to show outrage.
(Note, once you're on the feedback page you must click the General Comments/Feedback link on the lower left hand part of the page to reload the page. They won't let you submit if you don't click to reload it, as it will detect you've come from a link outside the cities page (referral information hidden).
http://www.talgov.com/email.cfm?id=cityofficials
And fapjack, stfu. This was totally unnecessary. They could have declined to do the deal and all would have been well. Killing her was not in self defense, and only got the scum defendants into more trouble.
There is no justification for what happened to her.
Edited by johnm214 (05/14/08 01:29 AM)
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SuperD
THE SPIRIT OFTRUTH
Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 2,370
Loc: TX
Last seen: 47 minutes, 56 seconds
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: johnm214]
#8399750 - 05/14/08 05:30 AM (3 months, 23 days ago) |
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Thanks for the link john, I'll let them know how I feel when I get off work this evening and have time to compose a decent response.
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I'd like you to meet my local drug dealer 
Bruce Campbell for a day! said: Go misidentify a mushroom please.
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Chemy
This is a stick up
Registered: 10/05/07
Posts: 5,528
Loc: Log Cabin, AK
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: SuperD]
#8399856 - 05/14/08 06:50 AM (3 months, 23 days ago) |
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What some people don't realize is that she was green as it gets, college graduate, I'm sure never spent an hour in jail, that makes for easy coercion and manipulation through intimidation and threats of serious prison time and a serious felony record.
I can see a very good silver lining in this case, if this legislation is passed requiring people to seek counsel before becoming a CI, that would be great and give people a cooling off period to rethink jeopardizing their life just to help build officers internal files, resumes and possibly publicity in the media without helping society in any way.
This is one of many cases where informants were killed and the officers turned their backs saying "not our fault, who cares"
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“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them". -Ayn Rand
“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.”
-Montesquieu, 1748
The thesis that I want to advance today is that the drug war and the laws that prohibit the private consumption of certain drugs are unconstitutional. Prohibition laws, themselves, violate every tenet of limited government that is embodied in our Constitution.
http://www.paulhager.org/libertarian/drug_con.html
Edited by Chemy (05/14/08 07:25 AM)
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HybridprX
Pr0_X indisguise
Registered: 01/29/08
Posts: 389
Loc: Asking to much
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: Chemy]
#8401049 - 05/14/08 02:02 PM (3 months, 22 days ago) |
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I'll tell you this much.
Violence against women is wrong unless they deserve it.
They could have gave her a damn good beating (Yes, she deserved it for rolling over) but to take her life was ridiculous.
To the two goofs who say she had it coming, I hope someone blows your f'in brains out all over your mom's face and then preach the "dont snitch" it's all about who handles the situation but if its a bunch of low life crack/coke gun toating P.O.S they deserve to be locked up, Gun's in their possession are used to intimidate people and protect them from rival gangs. If shit was set straight they'd have no use for violence but unfortunately they're nothing but a bunch of crack heads themselves.
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To walk through the world by ones self, you can't be
Protected... your trust is in whiskey and weed and
Black Sabbath - It's Goddamn Electric.
Pantera
- Support www.fsrc.nl R.I.P Fsrcanada and thank you Shdwstr
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johnm214
Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 6,010
Loc: Americas
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Re: Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History' [TAMPA] [Re: HybridprX]
#8403389 - 05/14/08 11:30 PM (3 months, 22 days ago) |
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I'm sickened by the reactions of the people posting on the Tallahassee paper. I was immediatly called a "liberal" and disclaimed by some. I'm about as far from a liberal as you can get, on economic issues anyways.
What isn't conservative about respect for private actors engaging in consensual activities?
THe main argument is:
"Anything that happened to her was justified because she made the decision to use drugs"
or
"Drugs cause crime so anything that happened to her was her fault"
Write the city, write the paper.
Hopefully some small change will come of this.
Simply providing an attorney to all C.I. applicants would help.
Many people don't realize that when the cops threaten years in jail, that they'd never see a day. I know people that were legimitatly thinking they'd see years in jail, then they got the case dismissed after they took a class.
Keep her name alive fellas.
Hundreds Mourn Slain Police Informant From Pinellas
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/may/14/me-hundreds-mourn-slain-police-informant/
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