There was a clear violation on the part of the police and the jedge that issued the warrant. I hope they are ALL prosecuted for murder.
Federal Rules require that any informant used to obtain a search warrant swear, and sign said sworn affidavit, that they witnessed the crime for which the warrant is being issued.
This poor woman's survivors are going to be VERY RICH. And I contend, again, the officers involved...and the judge...should be tried for murder.
I second that motion.
Right, the survivors will be very rich on the taxpayers' dime. Meanwhile the people responsible for this atrocity are suspended with pay and at worst may be retired on pension. Public officials (including judges and police chiefs) need to be held personally and legally responsible.
"This poor woman's survivors are going to be VERY RICH. And I contend, again, the officers involved...and the judge...should be tried for murder."
No way, the officers involved were acting within policy guidelines in the course of their duty. Forget that their policy and guidelines might be unconstitutional, but the USSC as sanctioned the behavior. So the innnocent victim is dead and the relatives can go fly a kite.
The only one great thing that may possibly come of all this is that the city of Atlanta may review the policy and find it willfully wrong and discontinue it except in specifically well defined and well confirmed cases.
At the least, such affidavits in the future in Atlanta may be required to determine who all lives in the home and the danger to them such a raid poses.
In this case an officer claims a reliable CI bought drugs there. So within a couple of hours the home is raided without ever determining who actually lives there and who might be at risk...and what those risks are. No we find the CI claiming he never bought drugs in the home and was asked to lie. WOW
Now that is stupid and I don't care who you are. It risks the lives of the officers and the homeowner, the family, the pets and the neighbors. Much more knowledge should be provided to the judge signing off. And any judge signing off on these kinds of warrants with the limited information provided as they currently accept should be removed from their high horses.
If the police are actually concerned with saving the lives of the innocent, then they should have no problem with a few more restrictive guidelines in these sort of operations.
You know, like who is likely to be in the home when raided?
Are there innocent children at risk? Are there innocent elderly people at risk? Or is it simply a house of thugs with no evidence of possible innocents? If I were a judge, I think that is the least I would ask before rubber stamping what some criminal CI suggests. Who are these fascist judges anyway?
Oh, you got the wrong house. Give me all your badges you bunch of idiots. You are not fit to serve should be the policy. Oh your informant lied, and you killed an innocent person defending her home, give me all your badges, you are not fit to serve law enforcement should be the policy.
Oh you tasered a pregnant women because she didn't comply? Give me your badge cause you are not fit to serve should be the policy. Oh you tasered a college student because he forgot his ID, give me your badge you are not fit to serve. Oh you beat to death a a kid at boot camp because he was unable to comply, give my your badge, you are not fit to serve should be the policy.
Oh, you shot to death an unarmed man and severly injured the passengers in his car because you THOUGHT he had a gun. Give me your badge because you are not fit to serve should be the policy.
And that's just this week alone in America folks.
This week is everyone's wake up call. I mean how hard is it to raid an 88 year old woman's home and kill her, or taser a college kid without his proper papers, or beat to death an imprisoned child for being unable to comply, or kill an unarmed man and maiming his friends also unarmed after leaving a bar?
Is this Baghdad, or the new USSR? It surely can't be America.
Ex-Atlanta cops get prison for drug raid killing
“It is my fervent hope the Atlanta Police Department will take to heart what has happened here,” U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes said. At the close of an emotional two-day hearing, Carnes sentenced former officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Bruce Tesler to between 5 and 10 years in prison. ...
Carnes imposed the most severe sentence — 10 years — on Smith, 36, who obtained the illegal, no-knock search warrant allowing officers to batter down 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston’s door.