Rachel Hoffman: Another Reason to Know Your Rights

Why settle for putting away a kid with a little bag of pot?

Now you can investigate a MURDER instead, and build your career!

Probably the only 'lesson' these police have learned is make sure their patsies are friendless and without family before sending them out to be slaughtered by truly dangerous criminals that they themselves are too cowardly to take down.

I'm sure that guy would call someone who's been busted jaywalking a couple of times a 'career criminal' as well, especially if he ran that person over while rushing to the donut shop.

Can't believe these cops sending out a girl to do their job for them, that they didnt have the guts to do themselves.

Have you ever researched how the police violate the legal rights
of those who suffer from mental illness? If you suffer from mental
illness, legal rights don't count.

This hits home for me because my sister, Rachel, is in one of these drug courts. It has done nothing to improve her life or drug seeking behavior, but made it impossible to get a job, taken money she doesn't have, and further alienated her from her daughter.

As for Rachel Hoffman, well, she got what she deserved, right? Head pig "KNOWS" she's a criminal, though never convicted of a crime! Just another example of the drug war escalating non-violent drug use into MURDER!!! My heart goes out to that girl and her family. The one good thing that comes of this is that it opens peoples eyes to the futility of the drug war. Let the fascist police keep digging their own graves...

So are you saying that Rachel Hoffman wasn't a drug addict that sold drugs?

20/20 did not portray Rachel Hoffman correctly. Rachel was a drug dealer who was arrested once, then caught again. She did not want ANOTHER charge on her record, so she was easily conned into becoming an informant. First & foremost, if Rachel was not dealing drugs, she would not have gotten herself into the situation that lead to her death.

But Rachel's poor decisions do NOT excuse what the police did - they abused their authority over Rachel and tricked her into making a purchase from guys she did not even know. These misbehaving cops are on administrative leave at the moment and the city is faced with a huge lawsuit now.

of her drug arrests, there was absolutely no excuse for this shoddy police work OR for the officer in the report to continually smirk as he answered questions about this disgusting travesty of power. His apologies and condolences are quite obviously just as hollow and insincere as the War on Drugs being anything less than a bargain between corporate and governmental agencies to assure revenue and continued growth for both.

Although this is a sad and tragic story, the only person to blame is Rachel. First of all, as another poster said, if she wouldn't have been using and selling drugs in the first place, she would never have been in this situation. I also find it very funny that most of you say it's just pot or whatever and forget all about the ecstasy and other pills. No matter the amount it is still breaking the law. Second, for those who say marijuana shouldn't even be illegal, I completely agree. This still doesn't excuse her actions and you can't blame the cops for doing their jobs. They don't make the laws, they just make sure laws aren't being broken. Lastly, this girl chose to be an informant to cover her own a** and no matter how much most of you want to portray here as some innocent little girl, she was a 23 year old college graduate completely aware of right and wrong.

My son was targeted by local law enforcement simply because they valued him as a potential drug informant. They were interested in him because he did construction work for someone who had a permit to grow marijuana plants. He had no drug violations. The detectives targeted his specific vulnerabilities, and played on his sympathy with an older informant who said he was going through a bad divorce, and needed marijuana for his anxiety. The 4 detectives witnessed and videotaped the sale, but did not arrest him. They waited until he reported for a scheduled jail time for a DUI, and rearrested him without publicity, and without family support. They told him he was "screwed", and would he work for them? When he didn't want to consent without talking with his girlfriend, they went after her at work and threatened to prosecute her. He pleaded guilty and got 2 years prison, leaving his 8 yr old son without a dad. Please take a stand against this unethical activity.

In this story, as sad as it is, we see a young woman that was a free spirit. She did not actual harm to anyone. She did break the law by using and distributing an illegal substance but the bigger story should be who sold her out. If she only sold to her friends, then which one of them sold her to the cops?

The amount of drugs found on her was ridiculously small but enough to nail her with a felony. That is all a cop with a power trip needs to put pressure on you.

Rachel was not a strong soul. She was a pleaser. In most cases this is a good thing but not when you are dealing with thugs and cops that are acting like thugs.

It is terrible that a beautiful soul has to be taken away from us because of a quarter bag of marijuana and 6 pills. It is a greater crime that nothing ever gets done to those actualy responsible for these tragedies because we are the ones that now act like sheep.

We all talk a good talk but in the end, it is all just empty words.

Rest in peace Rachel... I am sorry the world is so ugly...

W