Police-Community Tensions

When Atlanta narcotics officers shot and killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston last November after falsely telling a magistrate an informant had named her address as a drug hot-spot, they opened a window on a very shady part of the American criminal justice system. Now, Congress has taken a look and some key members are ready to rein in the snitch system.

Atlanta police have virtually stopped seeking drug search warrants in the six months since narcs executing a fraudulent "no-knock" warrant shot and killed a 92-year-old woman.

Two Atlanta narcotics officers have pleaded guilty in the November drug raid death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston, but it looks like that's just the beginning of problems for the Atlanta narcotics squad.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has released a report showing black and Hispanic drivers are more likely to be subjected to vehicle searches than whites, but it says it can't conclude racial profiling is to blame. It also lacks some key numbers that could make the case.

The opium economy is the leading employer in Afghanistan, despite limited eradication efforts funded by the west.

The governor of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has called for a debate over drug legalization both within Brazil and internationally. He argues that it would reduce crime in his violence-plagued city and state.

Just a little over a year into his term, Bolivian President Evo Morales is engineering a "coca, yes; cocaine, no" policy that is reducing tension there and leading to cooperative eradication efforts with farmers. Will the US government go along with it?

The Fulton County DA plans to indict three Atlanta undercover narcs for murder in the death of 92-year-old Katherine Johnstone during a botched drug raid. But will his move thwart an ongoing federal investigation?

In the wake of the killing of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a "no-knock" drug raid gone bad, the Atlanta NAACP is calling for tight restrictions on such raids, as well as other police reforms.

Narcotics officers in Jacksonville, Florida, shot and killed two men in separate incidents during undercover drug operations in late January. Both men were black, neither was a drug dealer, and calls for an investigation are increasing.