Rolling Over And Dying

Law enforcement officers are always interested in getting the bigger guy in drug stings, so in order to do that they sometimes offer what is known as ‘rolling over’ to the small-time drug peddler. After all, what does it really matter if you take the nickel and dime guy, or in this case girl, off the street? They are literally a dime a dozen and there is another one waiting to fill their shoes. The cops want the big boys and so, in order to have a better chance at catching the big boys they offer the roll over opportunity---know what that means? The nickel and dime peddler becomes an informant, a narc, a rat in order to hand the big boy to the cops. What happens to the little person? Well, the little person doesn’t go to jail and the charges against the little person disappear---well, that is on a good day. On a bad day, the big boy figures out what is going on and, well it really doesn’t matter if the charges are dropped because the little peddler is no longer around to know if they are or not.

Is this a good practice? A small town marijuana peddler in Tallahassee, FL lost her life this week in a similar situation. She was an educated young woman with a weed habit and she peddled weed. She did have, according to the authorities, a weed charge and she was ‘cooperating with the local law enforcement’, but she’s dead. Parents journeyed to Tallahassee to retrieve the body of their recently graduated daughter, who had a weed habit, who was planning to continue her education in the culinary field whose body was found murdered and dumped in a rural area.

No parent wants to get the phone call that their child has been arrested for peddling weed and is in jail. No parent wants to spend their hard earned money on an attorney to try to keep their child out of the correctional system. No parent wants to donate thousands of dollars to the local government as a penalty for the error of their child.

I’d gladly do all the above rather than to receive a phone call that my child is missing, kidnapped by drug dealers because she was ‘cooperating with the local authorities in a drug sting’ and something went wrong. Don’t offer my child that option! A young person arrested for drug possession would probably sell their first born or their birthright or both if they have one to keep Mama and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa and anyone else that comes to mind from learning of their travesty.

Let me learn of that travesty! I’ll get over it! You might not think I’ll get it over and you may know I’ll not get over it in the foreseeable future---but, at least you, my child, are here to see me get over it. We will all move on because the sun will come up tomorrow and…well, we’ll all still be here.

The parents of the young girl from Tallahassee can’t say that!

              - Melissa Harrell, MSCJ, BSCJ

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