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Law Enforcement: Almost No Drug Warrants in Atlanta Since Police Gunned Down Old Woman in Botched Drug Raid

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #490)
Consequences of Prohibition
Police-Community Tensions
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Atlanta Police Department narcotics officers have not sought a single "no-knock" search warrant in the six months since 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston was killed in a botched drug raid. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which examined court records, the number of all drug search warrants also dropped dramatically, down from at least 125 in the six months preceding her death to 19 in the six months since then.

In the Johnston case, two of the officers involved have admitted lying to a judge in order to obtain a search warrant for her home. Since then, Police Chief Richard Pennington has reassigned the entire narcotics squad, and a federal grand jury is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into whether and how often police lied to obtain search warrants.

"No-knock" warrants, where police break down the doors of suspects without warning, are issued by judges when police claim they fear the destruction of evidence or that officer safety could be compromised by knocking on the door. Critics charge the use of "no-knock" warrants leads to the use of excessive force and increases the possibility of armed confrontations between homeowners and invading police.

Chief Pennington said the drop-off in warrants is a temporary lull. "Once the new narcotics team is put on the street, we are going to go right back into these areas that have a large concentration of drug activity," he said. "We are going to work with the community. But we are going to make sure they do everything by the book."

Pennington announced strict new procedures for obtaining search warrants two months ago. He said he told police officers to seek warrants in only the biggest cases until the new narc squad was trained and on the street.

Atlanta defense attorneys hailed the decline in warrant applications, saying it demonstrated that police were cutting corners before the Johnston killing. "Now that they are being watched more closely and have to follow the law, they don't get many warrants," said Peter Ross, who represents drug defendants. "In the past, they basically had the ability to fabricate the information and get a warrant for it."

News Brief

This work by StoptheDrugWar.org is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Comments

Anonymous (not verified)

As a candidate for President in 2008, one of the items in my website is the abuse of power by the police. It's bad all over the country, and I will personally stop 99% of this abuse. I hate cops, because too many of them use that uniform to be the bullies like we all knew in school.
There are really good cops, who really want to help society, but there are also too many of them that are cops because they totally love the "I'm the law and your TRASH, so shut up and do as I demand or your dead". We have to stop this abuse of our rights to Innocent until found Guilty.
In California there is a law of confiscation where the cops take your property, claim it as the spoils of crime, your found innocent, but the law only gave you 3 days to file to get your stuff back, after they took it, and your in jail during that time, or you didn't sign the form exactly right, so the cops are taking in Billions of dollars and the cops actually feel it's OK for them to do that, and they are underpaid, and your probably guilty of something anyway. You realize of course that cops think we all are guilty of something and they are justified in stealing from you. Search Google for "Don Cordell" and see what I must do to stop this. Read my item about Cops, it tells you about various cop crimes that happen here. Lets stopt this, join me in 2008, and stop our nation being part of the North American Union, with all illegal aliens now legal citizens of the NAU, along with you. NO more Constitution, NO more Bill of Rights, NO more borders, if you think there are a lot of Hispanic here now, just wait.
Don Cordell, Lancaster, CA

Sat, 06/16/2007 - 3:35am Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

Don is exactly correct. We need to pull our resources together and get some people on ballots throughout the country. Check out the ideas on The American Change Party website (www.americanchangeparty.com) and see if you agree with these ideas. They represent my first hundred days in office. Let me know what you think.

JP Grund
jpgrund@bellsouth.net

Tue, 06/19/2007 - 2:10pm Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

When I'm elected President in 2008, I'll stop this incarceration for possession, or BEING under the influence of drugs. I'll hang the sellers, but I have pity for those who really feel the need to find an escape from their troubles. For these high and mighty that will complain this is wrong, then lets outlaw tobacco and alcohol, HA, then watch these same people explain that what they do is OK, its just what other people use that's wrong.
We certain need to take another look at what society wants. So far drug laws have been passed by the Police, and government. We repealed the 18th amendment because it was not what the citizens wanted. However I still think alcohol is the worst drug used in America. But it's the will of the people to use alcohol, it is also the will of the people to arrest those who abuse alcohol. We arrest drug users just for using drugs, abuse or not. If it affects other behavour then that is different. A lot of drug use is a non victim abuse. I want to end all arrests for non victim crimes. NOW tell me why our government imports drugs or arrests border agents who try to stop drug smugglers? What does our government do with these drugs, sell to the highest bidder? Tucson, AZ judges don't want to be bothered convicting smugglers with less than 500 lbs of Pot. Just a waste of the judges time. How about them apples? We have a government that is totally out of control, so much so that most Americans no longer have any respect for our elected officials. So we don't even show up to vote, why bother, both the Republicans and Democrats are bad, not a nickels worth of difference. Both are planning to sell us to the United Nations. Check out the following links. http://www.customscorruption.com
http://www.bordergate.net and http://www.customscoverup.com
Then start to wake up to what "our" government does to us all the time. Drug enforcement? what a joke. Remember all of this in Nov 2008. Lets clean up this country.
Amnesty for Libby, 11, and 12 years for border agents protecting our borders. Do you call that justice?, I don't

Fri, 07/06/2007 - 11:53pm Permalink

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