Patriot Guard Road Captain expresses thanks to CCHD

Apparently the free vending spots made available by the Scott of CCHD paid of for some at least.

The local Tallahassee PGR Road Captain, Mike Donohoe, asked me to post his public thanks to Scott. Apparently setting up a booth did PGR well there. According to Mike, PGR signed up 62 new members yesterday (when can only hope the recent new coverage motivated a few). Thats outstanding. Now all that remains to be seen is, they got the shirt, will they answer the call?

For those who did sign up, many thanks. You are needed and you will feel an immense sense of gratification when you see how the service men appreciate YOUR service. Thanks for standing up.Add to Technorati Favorites

20/20 to do story on Racheal Hoffman, Tallahassee Police Dept remains under fire

From the Tallahassee Democrat (read the whole story here):

"'60 Minutes' wanted exclusivity," said Marsha Koppe, Vice President of Sachs Communications.

Block and the Hoffman family weren't willing to grant it, so instead "20/20" will be the first national magazine show to deal with the death of Hoffman.

"Right now, and things can always change if a national story breaks or something like that, but it looks like it will air on the evening of July 25," Koppe said. "And it's going to be a package piece with 'Good Morning America.'"

Alexandra Natapoff is hoping Hoffman's "tragic story" wakes the nation up to the controversial use of confidential informants.

Natapoff is a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and one of the nation's leading experts on confidential informants. She has written a book titled "Snitching: Using Criminals to Manage Crime" that will be released by New York University Press, and she testified before Congress last year about a notorious case in Atlanta in which a confidential informant's lead wound up with the police raiding the wrong house and eventually killing an innocent 92-year-old woman named Kathryn Johnston.

Natapoff said Hoffman's case might create a similar fire storm throughout the nation because of who she was. Or more to the point, who she wasn't.

Hoffman wasn't facing serious jail time. She wasn't male. She wasn't uneducated, and she wasn't a minority.

"It's not just that she was merely white, she was also represented with counsel," Natapoff said. "And she had a family that did not think they needed to take this lying down."

One of the many questions raised by the Hoffman case is exactly how much danger confidential informants are in when they work with police?

The answers come from all over the country.

In 1984, a South Florida confidential informant was shot and killed at a bar in Palm Beach County.

In August 1989, an informer in New York City was shot and killed so he wouldn't give information to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

In 1998, a California teenager who had worn a wire during one undercover drug bust was later shot and murdered.

In 2004, a 20-year-old father of two was gunned down in Brooklyn after leading police to an apartment where a loaded gun and crack were found.

In 2006, a Pennsylvania man was stabbed more than 20 times and killed during a botched undercover drug buy after police officers lost sight of him.

"It's a routine risk and threat," Natapoff said. "It's no surprise to anyone in the criminal system that something like this would happen. But when the Hoffman family got mad they started asking, 'How could this happen?'"

And almost as importantly, how can it be stopped from happening again?

Block and the Hoffman family are hoping the media attention will spark a reform in how confidential informants are used. As it stands now, police agencies have free reign — especially when it comes to drug crimes — to make dangerous, secretive deals with users and dealers.

"There are no checks and balances," Block said.

And that's a problem, according to Natapoff.

While she readily admits confidential informants play a vital role in bringing criminals to justice, she is concerned about the lack of supervision and regulation involved in such a pressurized environment.

"The criminal system tells police officers you need to make drug busts," she said. "And here's a tool that will enable you to do that. We won't make you write it down. There are not any rules. We'll just leave it to your discretion."

And those are the Tactics of a Police state, see our post on how the drug wars have gotten out of hand here:

http://www.bigbendbikersforfreedom.com/2008/05/drug-wars-enriching-police-while.html

From the Tallahassee TPD website About the Chief:

To meet the challenges of the coming years the Tallahassee Police Department has three "wildly important goals":

• Providing the best public service;
• Improving our crime fighting effort; and,
• Leveraging technology as a tool for success.

We are committed to accomplishing these goals. But, we need your feedback. I invite you to let us know how we're doing.

Problem is I can't find any e-mail address to contact TPD or the Chief. If you can e-mail it to us. If you can't, well lets see, scratch of leveraging technology along with public service.

To see more of our posts on Rachel Hoffman go here

If the those who uphold the law can no longer be held accountable, then they themselves become the lawlessAdd to Technorati Favorites