The Throwaways Sarah Stillman Analysis

Throughout high school teenagers are going through many changes. These young people are trying to find themselves and seek out who they truly are. Along the road they encounter peer pressure from people utilizing illegal substances. Even though school systems educate young minds about the use and consequences of illegal drugs, they still take the chances. The predominant complication that these adolescents come across is that upon interacting with the police, they are unaware of how to manipulate the circumstance. In Sarah Stillman’s article, The Throwaways, she mentions multiple cases in which we see how young adults today are treated when they have minor drug charges held against them. Stillman specifically elaborates on four unfortunate

She extensively shows that the officers neglect the lives of the informants since they are lawbreakers. Stillman says that criminal informants, “[…] have been given false assurances by the police, used without regard for their safety, and treated as disposable pawns of the criminal-justice system” (3). By stating that the police are manipulating CI’s into acting as bait, leads into the safety hazards that lie within their administration. In Rachel Hoffman’s situation, Stillman makes certain to write about how the “[…] police lost track of her and her car” (2). The police falsely assured Rachel that she was going to be safe, which resulted in her unfortunate death. Another instance in Stillman’s article in which the police falsely assured the CI’s safety is Jeremy McLean. After his last undercover operation, Jeremey tried to lay low for awhile because he was being threatened. His parents started to get worried and when they went to the police they were told “[…] not to worry; the guys Jeremy had busted were ‘small fries,’ not the murdering type, just low-life drug runners” (16). That winter, a hit man “shot Jeremy three times in the back of the head, then once, at close range, in the face” (16). Stillman makes it understandable in her article that the police officers are not executing their rightful task and that the security of criminal informants needs to be