Undercover Cops Seduce Teens, Bust Them for Drugs? | Opposing Views

Last year in three high schools in Florida, several undercover police officers posed as students. The undercover cops went to classes, became Facebook friends and flirted with the other students. One 18-year-old honor student named Justin fell in love with an attractive 25-year-old undercover cop after spending weeks sharing stories about their lives, texting and flirting with each other.

One day she asked Justin if he smoked pot. Even though he didn’t smoke marijuana, the love-struck teen promised to help find some for her. Every couple of days she would text him asking if he had the marijuana. Finally, Justin was able to get it to her. She tried to give him $25 for the marijuana and he said he didn’t want the money — he got it for her as a present.

A short while later, the police did a big sweep and arrest 31 students — including Justin. Almost all were charged with selling a small amount of marijuana to the undercover cops. Justin has been convicted of selling pot inside a school, a felony in Florida. He is no longer eligible to join the Armed Forces as he had planned to do upon graduation and is now attending community college.

This is not an isolated incident. Click to continue reading.

sign the petition: Palm Beach Mayor Gail Coniglio: Stop sending undercover officers into your high schools

In Palm Beach County the police have already used this tactic to arrest and convict over 80 students at numerous high schools. And sadly, this tactic is not unique to sunny Palm Beach.

In the Huffington Post, Tony Newman likened this story to that of 18-year-old Mitchell Lawrence, a student from Great Barrington, Mass. who served two years in jail for selling a joint to an undercover cop. According to Newman, “the officer befriended Lawrence and his friends, hanging out with them after school. One day the cop asked if Lawrence had any weed. Lawrence gave the cop a joint and the cop handed him $20. Lawrence hesitated, but the cop insisted on giving him the money. Because they were less than 100 feet from school, “selling” the joint carried a two-year mandatory minimum sentence.”

No police department should expend taxpayer money to trick kids into becoming one-time drug dealers just to slap a felony conviction on their record. It’s shameful and robs too many of a better future.  Nancy Reagan once told us that the drug war was fought to protect our kids, but with these tactics it’s more often taking away their future.

We can’t change this disgraceful practice across the country with one campaign, but we can start the ball rolling by changing them in Palm Beach. Tell Mayor Gail Coniglio to stop sending undercover police officers into her high schools.  Beefing up the county’s drug conviction rate is not worth robbing more kids of their future.