WHEN COPS PLAY ROBBERS: FORMER POLICE OFFICER CHARGED IN MULTIPLE FLORIDA BANK ROBBERIES

Picasso, Before Robbing Banks

Risk taking can be as addictive as drugs, but mixing drugs with the ultimate risk of Florida bank robbery makes for a toxic mix for a Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorney to unwind. The crack bank robber who recently called 911 saying that he was about to rob another Tampa Bay bank is a former police officer with a huge drug problem. His life spiraled out of control not only from drug addiction but seems to have escalated into the need to take ever greater risks with an addiction to the risks of robbery itself. As press reports note:

Money is rarely the sole motivator in bank heists, says William Rehder, a bank robbery expert and 33-year FBI agent. What drives the robbers, the thing that keeps them coming back to steal even more, is the excitement of the act itself.
"All bank bandits are serial," Rehder said. "Robbing a bank is as much an addiction as drugs can be."
That's likely what it was for Kane...as Kane himself told authorities after each time he was busted, it was addiction, the primal rush one gets from carrying out something as invigorating and dangerous as taking someone else's money, that led to his downfall.

Yet even if violent acts such as robbery are addictive should Courts take that addiction into account to lower the Florida sentencing scoresheet and guideline as might be reasonable with a proven drug addiction? Violent crimes by their very nature must be treated by the Courts in Florida with more care than nonviolent crimes.
Criminal sentencing has many objectives which Clearwater Criminal Lawyers often argue such as the hope for rehabilitation or the need for punishment, but protecting the public from violent acts is a primary goal which in Tampa Bay Florida will always be the sentencing Court's primary concern no matter what addiction is proven.