Police in central Texas arrested a woman after she fell for a fake warning posted on the department’s Facebook page. Granite Shoals PD put out the phony news alert warning citizens that meth and heroin in the area could be contaminated with Ebola.
The warning said: “If you have recently purchased meth or heroin in Central Texas, please take it to the local police or sheriff department so it can be screened with a special device. DO NOT use it until it has been properly checked for possible Ebola contamination!”
Chasity Hopson reportedly brought her drugs to the police station to get “checked out” – fearing they might contain the deadly virus – which is spread through a person’s blood or bodily fluids or through contaminated needles and syringes.
Hopson was booked on drug-related charges. Her picture was posted along with the caption:
“And the winner of the Facebook post challenge is: Name HOSPON, CHASITY EUGINA.”
News 4 San Antonio reported that some people on social media thought the post was “unprofessional” – while others got the joke.
The dept. said it wanted to show “all parts of the law enforcement world… including our sense of humor.”
A follow-up statement on their Facebook page read: “I hope this will allow you to see who we are, humans, just like you. We have families, friends, lives, laugh, cry, and bleed all the same.”
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I certainly expected some of my hometown dweebs and dwerps and dysfunctions to fall for it!
YOU CAN”T FIX STUPID
I feel conflicted about this situation, honestly. On one hand, I’m happy to see this Police Department using humour to connect with the people they serve. Humour is always welcome in my books.
However, I feel that this may have just tipped over the line into “mean” territory. As police, you represent the authority of the law and people must trust in you and your actions. Though you would indeed have to be quite gullible to fall for such a claim, there are gullible people out there. This woman was concerned about her health (yes I know she consumes methamphetamine, but regardless, she had some concern about her health) and trusted this department enough to come and seek assistance. In making this “joke” and laying possession charges on this woman, the department has taken advantage of her trust in a seemingly predatory manner. This is all beside the fact that people who are using drugs can experience hypochondriasis, most notably in users of stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine.
So again I will state that I’m split on this issue. I find the original post hilarious, but can’t help but feel for the woman who trusted the words of Granite Shoals’ finest and was led into incriminating herself because of it. How do you feel about this?
In the end they are bound by the law, It might be somewhat unfortunate but they had no other recourse anyhow. They had to book her, no leeway there I’m afraid.
If they’re bound by law then they’re also bound by laws pertaining to entrapment
I agree Mr. Logue
UMMM>>> That’s what she gets?!
It feels like less of a “See? We’re just like you!” kind of joke and more of a “Ha! Look at this stupid fuck up we just busted!”
The whole “We have families, friends, lives, laugh, cry, and bleed all the same” line sounds particularly conceited all things considering. Unless laughing at another’s misfortune is the basis of what makes us human. I get that they have a job that needs doing but there’s upholding the law and there’s reveling in another person’s downfall. If anything it makes me less likely to trust the police than more likely.
I feel sometimes a rude awakening, is the best awaking
I think the publicity is probably enough punishment
You know, at first I laughed and thought, “What a dope!” However after reading your comment, I’d have to agree with you.
It’s one thing to entice a criminal in with offers of free tvs or unclaimed money (criminals I’ve seen done in other depts), but scaring people like this does seem a little mean spirited.
The folks who think this unbecoming for a police department are as dumb as the CRIMINAL who responded and got arrested. It is not entrapment. The police are allowed to lie to suspects. All the courts have upheld lying to suspects. The only distrust of the police should be by criminals and idiots who think this was a bad thing. Damian M. White this applies double to you =you IDIOT1
So you’re okay with those who are sworn to uphold the law and to keep the peace lying and employing deception to achieve their means…..which is, in this case, obtaining the almighty dollar?
I want you to think about that for a minute before you answer….
I agree, arrest her for drugs but there was no need to make fun of her publicly for falling for the joke. That was just mean.
Stupid for two reasons. 1. This is probably entrapment so likely they can’t convict her anyway except to waste taxpayer dollars by trying. 2. This just sows distrust between people and the police and creates a public safety issue. You cannot cry wolf now and expect people to heed warning later. Cops are people too and have “families and laugh and bleed just like everyone else.” Great. No one disputes that. But this government prank is a stupid way to try to humanize the police.
My brother-in-law was called by the police several years ago saying that they wanted to “talk” to him about his back child support, the police said “Hi” and “you are under arrest” it stuck. He showed up, they said Hi so that was them talking, no entrapment about it. these officers posted about Meth and Heroin being tainted, bring it in to be tested, she brought hers in, no entrapment.
I find this use of humor great, I work in the prison system in Fl. and see a lot of this mentality. Yes I work at a female instution. Only a women could fall for this.
Tyler…. it’s entirely her fault she bought it, and turned it in to the authorities. Nobody forced her to do it. While I commend them for using humor….. I think it’s even more hilarious anyone fell for it. For one…. Ebola would leave a much publicized trail of death, it needs a living host to survive for any length of time…. and…. maybe she will think twice before using a drug that made her actually believe the original post…. then again it is meth and/or heroin… maybe there isn’t much going on upstairs anyways. Sad because she is a very beautiful young woman, who I’m sure had a lot going for her without the drugs.
I think this was a bunch of bullshit…. SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT!!! YOU AS AN IMMATURE POLICE DEPARTMENT PUT OUT A FAKE VIRUS WARNING!?!? ARE YOU KIDDING… DOESN’T MATTER WHAT FOR….. EBOLIA ESPECIALLY THO…. PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO TRUST THE POLICE AND THEN YOU PULL SOME SHIT….. SHOULD HAVE JUST TAKEN HER DUMB ASS DRUGS… AND LET HER WALK… BC I BET IF I PUT OUT A FAKE WARNING TO PUBLIC ABOUT SOMETHING WITH EBOLIA… I WOULD BE CHARGED WITH SOME TYPE OF CHARGE OF TERROR OR FALSE REPORTING/WARNING/THREAT… I would press charges on behalf of the city on the police department for false alarms and reports with a seriously deadly virus…
Cops suck, they lie all the time in all investigations this is just showing America their true colors . They intended for some dummy to fall victim . They will say they were trying to relate with the people and show their humans too. What a crock of crap . They lie, cheat, steal, and break laws . But you better noty
You police are some stupid, sick fucks. You offered to test potentially dangerous drugs safely, WITH NO INDICATION THAT YOU WERE PLANNING TO ARREST HER. This woman went to you, in faith, for help – BECAUSE of the help YOU OFFERED and now she’s paying the price for trusting police. You are all absolutely disgusting, it’s no wonder the entire public hates you and has no faith in your “system of justice for us and only us.” You better start understanding now that if you keep escalating these juvenile (yet often lethal) abuses of power, people aren’t going to give a shit when they start fighting back. Time to start looking over your shoulders, because you bitches aren’t going to be able to keep up this sick little private club for long.
This is a sick joke that shows how untrustworthy the police are. Addiction is a disease, not a choice! And i wouldn’t be surprised if one of you in blue took her drugs for your own personal habit. When we have such low standards set in place across the country for the job of police officer, we are bound to get immature child-like, un-educated, no life-experience teenagers signing up to wear a badge and gun-forcing respect from the citizens so they can skip the process of earning it.
I totally agree with you!, Being imature and playing games is in no way ok. I was told by my oldest sister yrs ago that these guards, mall cops, anyone who works as a cop or in anything close to it are THE KIDS WE GREW UP WITH WERE TEASED & PICKED ONE AS KIDS…THIS IS THEIR ONLY WAY TO GET BACK AT THEM, THEY GET THESE (I’M IN CONTROL) JOBS & ABUSE THEIR OWN RIGHTS! I think they are all so miserable that they want others to be also.
THIS IS WHY I DON’T TRUST COPS, LIES, LIES, LIES! Time to grow up! Jennifer s.
Absolutely hilarious and if the lady was that bad off to walk in there then obviously she truly has put to many holes in her brain and needs some help. Feel bad for her?? You should feel happy for her. What she had could have still easily killed her.
I do not condone the use of drugs. Having said that, as a prank or as humor is not an excuse to literally post a false Ebola scare on their official FB page. This is propagating false information that could cause a panic. Ebola is a very serious and contagious illness and publicly and openly announcing an outbreak is irresponsible at least, and illegal most probably.
Entrapment?
This is really sad. What is this world coming to? I can’t believe that a police department is allowed to publicly shame, laugh and make fun of an addict and put them on blast for social display on facebook. Seeing that more people are not outraged by this shows me how in trouble we are as a society. Drug addictions ARE NOT funny. These people need help. They are real people with real lives, just as these “officers” claim to have. It is not a matter of “have a sense of humor” when your job is to protect us and keep it professional. For fucks sake. Everyone, grow up.
This is blatant entrapment due to the arrest she should sue the department for fraudulently disregarding our constitutional rights and crying wolf, now will make light of a situation if there ever was a outbreak, classy that the police can be this corrupt and deceptive and deserve a public apology
Maybe this joke saved this woman’s life; for all anyone knows she may have OD’ed on her next dose and rather than people bitching about this “immature police department”, her family and loved ones would be grieving. I’ve had a family member die of an OD before, and I’d much rather she had gotten busted by a “joke” like this and be in prison and getting rehabilitated than where she is now.
The post by the PD referenced meth and heroin- drugs that cause people to die every day (many of those are good, caring people but caught in an addiction that they cannot control- you can’t judge people based on one little thing you know about them); it didn’t say “bring in your weed, hash, mdma, and while you’re at it…throw in your nutmeg too [cuz for all we know if you have more than 1 bottle of nutmeg you’re probably using it to hallucinate]…so we can make sure it’s not tainted with Ebola!!” No. They didn’t. If this post has at least saved one persons life and saved one brother the hell of hearing his baby sister died of an OD, as my dad had to go through, then props to you Granite Shoals PD, thank you. ??
Say what you want about this, but they achieved a small portion of their goal they got the drugs off the street !!¡!
Or another way of looking it is that they lied and employed deception to make money…..which is the real goal here.
Kinda changes the viewpoint, doesn’t it?
Kinda makes it a con now, huh?
If the Lady had one iota of brains she could of thrown the drugs away and seen a Dr in privacy . The police are allowed to do such things to fool people that are doing illegal things i’e as in interrogation . They can lie to them etc. She did this to herself .
If a person publicly made a statement to indicate that ebola was rampant or otherwise incited a public scare that it was rampant when it was in fact NOT, that person would be arrested, no?
My question is this: why is the police officer who posted this ‘joke’ not being charged.
It is akin to someone joking about having a bomb before boarding an airplane.
This kind of crap needs to stop.
Whoever came up with this brilliant plan needs to be held accountable.
Putting some idiot in jail for destroying their own brain is not that important for an entire police department to create a terroristic scare amongst the community.
I feel this is wrong. Its not the users who belong in jail. Its the drug dealers. And i dont even believe dealers should get long sentences. Just depends onnthe situation.
I cannot believe some of the butt hurt that I read in just the first 10 comments. You’re really going to say their post “scared the community”? The only part of the community that would have been “scared” is the worthless, meth and heroin using scum. I couldn’t really give a flying f*ck if the officers were rolling around on the floor, pointing and laughing while they uncontrollably shit and pissed themselves during booking. In the end, the officers have done their jobs without breaking the law. Any shitbag that claims entrapment should look up the very definition of that word. The only crime committed here was the purchase and use of the drugs, which that woman did on her own behalf.
So now she has a felony and the cops got a good laugh. Feel good story of the year. Meth is the worst shit ever, but giving felonies to simple users is not protecting or serving anybody. This woman probably has a job and a house and a bunch of other stuff that’s nobody’s business and if she wants to do some meth, that’s her problem. Instead you give her a felony, ruin her life, probably lost her job. Good work, boys. Break it off in the manufacturers ass. Leave people like this woman alone, you dickheads. You expect us to care about your families? We have our own families. No offense, but fuck your families.
It is definitely entrapement, yet law enforcement agencies have used hoaxes like this for years. And they catch many many in this manner.
Looking at the photos taken. I don’t believe this lady was using meth. I’m glad at least one stupid person fell for it. More should. The cops did right on their part. Why such negative crap against them? They did what they are supposed to do. She was in possession of drugs. Plain and simple.
I think it’s ironic that we are told to trust the police who have been trained in techniques of lying and deception.
What a bunch of crap! I don’t think the POLICE should be ABLE to LIE about something so terrible! No wonder so many ppl hate the police! I don’t do drugs but it is an illness that is not recognized in the US because ppl are sooooo ignorant. Those ppl need help not put in JAIL! Duh!
This is clearly defined by law as entrapment. They did something that caused this person to do something in response that she would not have otherwise done! Can’t stand cops that break the law to do their job!
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