Atlanta Cops Jailed For Killing 92 Year Old Great Grand Mother

reply to post by cognoscente

This is a clear violation of the Constitution. Good thing they're being locked up. It doesn't matter if they have corpses hanging in their basements, if there's no evidence and no suspicion then there is no right to entry on behalf of the law enforcement.

Actually the courts have carved an exception into the 4th Amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

The clause that hangs us up is “. . no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation . . “ It’s called the CONFIDENTIAL AND RELIABLE INFORMANT. When the police approach a judge with an affidavit supporting the warrant, a second but sealed affidavit is also filed identifying the informant on whose information the person seeking the warrant has sworn to his affidavit. An affidavit by proxy. Extra-judicial.

Presumably the reliable informant has furnished information in the past that led to a conviction. It is unfortunate that this is a dog chasing its tail kind of thing. Who is to know the truth of the claim about any “confidential and reliable informant?” It’s almost a license to steal.

I constantly remind readers that in Illinois, the very good governor George Ryan, commuted all the prisoners on Death Row. He did that after the Death Penalty Project - mostly Northwestern U. Law School types - found 11 people on Death Row were innocent. Out of 139 inmates 7.9% were innocent men. On that basis George Bush had .079 X 154 = 12 innocent men executed in Texas. In one case, 4 cops had framed a man. One cop had a conscience and ratted out his co-conspirators. Otherwise, the man would have died. Illinois has not yet restored the death penalty. I hope they never do. The dp is barbaric.

reply to post by mikelkhall
The second to last time I called the law-deforcement, was when I was assaulted for honking at a car breaking the law at my expense. They then threatened to arrest ME. The following time was after I was attacked by a gang-banger, Hispanic, a block from my house. He was also Mexican, and had no compunction about threatening to arrest ME for causing the disturbance of being assaulted by the gang-bangers. Who do I call first? Do you have the number of Hell's Angels? They are more honest, as they do not pretend to be 'law enforcement'. I certainly will not call these gangsters ever again, and I will attempt to carry out justice by myself. And bury the evidence. We no longer are a nation of law, but lawless. Our Illlegal in Chief had nothing to do with that, but that is why he was able to pull off his amazing scam. Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Law enforcement officers do have a dangerous job. You never know if that drunk driver has a gun or not.

But, too often I do feel there is a bit too much enforcement with petty things. For instance, a cop sitting in an area where it would be easy overlook a speed limit sign, waiting for a victim. Just waiting for you you to make a mistake. Sometimes, we as people are in a hurry, for whatever reason, and we need to get to where we are going, fast. Give warnings, not tickets for the first few speeding offenses, mark it somewhere. Then, on say, the 3rd offense, "Sorry, you were warned, you will now be ticketed." Don't ticket on the first offense. That's just taking advantage of people.

And it depends on the situation. Like a person driving dangerously through a residential area. "I'm going to give you one warning, and that's it. I see this again, and you will be fined, and your license will be suspended."

Someone did mention Andy Griffith. Now, that's how the law should work, more or less. He kept the peace with a level head. He talked to people, he didn't get bold unless he had to. He was respected, and he didn't back down when he had to be tough.

Most people don't act like wild animals, we really don't need to be tasered, and herded like cattle. Sometimes we are a little over the speed limit, but largely we aren't out to hurt others. We will respect level headed law enforcement. Handle us with reason first, if possible, but use force only when reason isn't a good choice. If I'm standing on the corner, cutting people's heads off, and shooting into traffic, then that's a good time to terminate me. We know you many times you do things to keep us safe from criminal activity. And we do respect that.

92 year old women should not be carelessly shot.

Troy

Yes, coppers shouldn't be allowed to carry ANY contraband. They especially shouldn't be allowed to carry it to the scene of a search. The contraband should be tightly controlled even if they are using it as 'bait' in a 'sting' operation. There should be no reason a copper is allowed to carry drugs freely as evidenced by the actions of these officers.

This situation exemplifies what most people are saying about cops. On the police force that carried out this raid there are obviously bad cops. I am sure that there are good cops on this force as well. This is a perect example of why people don't trust or respect cops. Not so much because they planted contraband, although that was bad enough, but because the good cops allowed the bad cops to continue these practices. If the good cops don't stand up and become law enforcement officers, peace officers, who truly do serve the public and stop these bad cops, who will? Who else will stop them? I do not believe the other cops on the force did not know the character of these convicted cops. This is a good example of why the public dislikes cops and does not trust cops. The good cops are complicit because they allow the bad cops to continue operating.

Too many stories of abuse of power and corrupt cops lately.

# the cops.

I don't know about this one to be honest.
There is a lot of other ones, that are much worse, and they don't go to jail.
These cops DID have a warrant to break enter and search.
They didn't just go in there.
The Judge issued the no knock warrant, they just followed its procedures.
Once a cop has a warrant, you have no right to shoot at them when they come in.
There is many other cases of cops gunning people down in the street, and not going to jail.
I mean clearly as they entered they said *POLICE DEPARTMENT* although the old lady probably didn't understand or even hear it.
Seems like these cops could be being made into scape goats by someone higher up the chain, who issues these stupid no knock warrants.
That are dangerous for all involved.
One sad situation this one is.

I am not sure what Presidentualera it was . 4 to 1 say's it was Bush 1 with his C.I.A. and other uknown secret's about him.but someone started training are peace officer's, as if they were at war with us the people. they are to serve and protect, they give them milatary training, milatary weapons,and every year the milatary gives them free updates, for new tactics and weapons,just watch an episode of swat, were they use NO NOCK WARRENT'S for an ounce of pot and nopody says a word in these towns?Dallas is a joke if that is not over kill jess that is why this poor women died a death she did not deserve and the one's who did it the one who planted the drugs should have gotten death to send a message to the other's that will do the same because they have an excuse the WAR on drugs!

I hope those cops have a real nice stay in prison.... they LOVE cops in prison.

Poor cops, they are scared to death. With all the technology we have such as sonic and sound devices, sleeping gas, etc., in the end a 5 cent bullet is cheaper, in and out by lunch time.

Don't lower yourself to that thought of violence, you are right, but it lowers your divinity to recognize it. Send them love and compassion, they are obviously victims of a mindset of violence and over reaction.

Originally posted by mr-lizard
I hope those cops have a real nice stay in prison.... they LOVE cops in prison.

I hope this story goes out to every police department in the US. Let the police know they do not have permission to invade peoples homes with no warrant and start shooting. And plant evidence.

I am NOT a cop hater, however, these drug raids/swat team raids are out of control in our country. The police need to understand we are not, at least not yet, in a fascist state, and they do not have permission to break into homes at their discretion.

The planting of weed on this poor elderly lady is despicable, and it happens all the time throughout police departments in the US, as well as planting weapons on suspects, usually dead suspects.

Let this serve notice to the police they are to "serve and protect" as Peace officers.

God Bless the poor lady who was shot and killed for no reason at all, and God Bless the judge that took this action!

finally at least the cops who do something bad are charged and sent to prison and not just get a slap on the wrist, like a few months leave with pay. I mean their people to, and just because their cops and they do something wrong doesn't mean they should get away with scotch free.

This is ridiculous.

That angers me so much. Can you imagine how mad you would be if two police officers show up at YOUR door to announce that your grandma was killed in sporatically shot bullets that were aimed at practically nothing, and then men who killed her were fellow police officers? What in the world would somebody say to that?

I would be down right furious. and with a right to be.

We need to stop injustices like this.

CM

Is it not illeagel for cops to have mj to use for planting or smoking ?It is for the comming citisen.

reply to post by Soloman Kane

Is it not illegal for cops to have mj to use for planting or smoking? It is for the common citizen.

Sure it's illegal for anyone to possess a controlled substance. The PTB maintain schedules of controlled substances, I (most dangerous) through IV or V (least dangerous). I think which schedule something is on is based on its addictive qualities. Methamphetamine would be Schedule I. Whereas MJ might be schedule IV.

And planting evidence has always been a crime in itself.

The underlying reason for the “No Knock” warrants was the old trick of blocking the door against the raiding cops while the others flushed the drugs down the toilet. To prevent that happening it was concluded that a surprise entry was justified. Hence “no knock.”

It would be interesting to see how effective that "warrant" has been and to weigh that against the all too many people killed - say a few 100 - in the process, including a fair number of WRONG people and warrants served on the WRONG address and etc.

Someday we will have to admit our War on Drugs which started under President Nixon in 1969 has been a GRAND failure. It is as bad as or worse than the old Prohibition Era from 1920 to 1933.

We will ultimately choose a few drugs, perhaps 5 or 6, that have varying psychedelic effects and pose varying degrees of risk to the takers. Those in turn will have to be offered OTC - over the counter - the sellers verifying only the age of the buyers. And cheap! I still think 21 is the threshold age for getting oneself intoxicated and drugged up.


[edit on 2/25/2009 by donwhite]

Just a note to all those who hate cops and say we are all bad and that my profession is corrupt to the core....ummmm...you do realize these guys and MANY other officers who have done wrong were investigated and arrested by..........fellow police officers! We DO try and police our own when they do wrong...even though MOST of you disagree with it. If we didn't...these guys would never have been charged, but the GOOD cops stepped up and said no, no, no....that ---- is wrong!

Originally posted by Maxmars

I think they should ban the term 'law enforcement.' We were all better off when police had to live up to the 'peace officer' perception.

I agree with this. I think it would help the public perception. So would easing up on the shooting of innocent civilians.

if you knew a cop was a scum and didnt deserve to wear the badge, why didnt you report him? ill tell you why. because cops are just another gang that wears blue!! one will lie and another will swear to it. yes, after ia has found corruption you will step in nd arrest your "brother" because who else will. its insane.

they should have charged him with possesion of a controlled substance while possesing a firearm. that would have gotten a much longer stay in the think tank. was he ever charged with possesion?

i am anti-violence, but i do hope justice will be served nearing the end of their stay.

reply to post by ConMi27

This is ridiculous. That angers me so much. Can you imagine how mad you would be if two police officers show up at YOUR door to announce that your grandma was killed in sporadically shot bullets that were aimed at practically nothing, and then men who killed her were fellow police officers? What in the world would somebody say to that? I would be down right furious. and with a right to be. We need to stop injustices like this.

Where to start? 30,000 people die every year in America by gunfire. 38,000 people die by auto accidents, down from the highs of low 50,000 just 3 or 4 decades ago. Death by gunfire remains fairly constant. In all of Europe with a population larger than ours I’d guess the number there is fewer than 1,000.

America’s GDP per person is given at $48,500. If you assume half the people killed by gunfire worked and had 30 years of productivity remaining in their lives, then the cost to the US in lost earnings is $727.5 million per year. $21.8 billion over the 30 years of earnings. Each year we add a new 30,000 KIA by gunfire in the US. As the late but famous senator from Illinois Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896-1969) once said, “A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking real money!”

No person in politics can DARE to mention this. The NRA would KILL him, politically speaking. So we have a gun culture. Guns are lethal. In fact, if you look at the CDC statistics you will see that to be gunshot is fatal in 28% of the instances where the person seeks medical care. In the category “All other accident” likewise serious enough to seek medical care, the lethality is less than 1/10th of 1% of all such persons. Which makes guns 28,000 times more lethal than “all other accidents.” Note: motor vehicle fatal accidents are excluded from the above numbers and are recorded separately.

I’m sure without knowing even the policemen who carried the mj to plant on the subject of the warrant had no intention of breaking into the house and killing its only occupant. It is our culture that killed her, more so than any one person.

Jacksonville is the worst city in FL for police killings. Population 775,000. Last week was unusual but the JSO - Jacksonville Sherif’s Office - which is the merger surviving policing agency - killed 3 people. One was shot in the back, and must have been fleeing. Another was shot and it was learned later he was acting as if “mentally deficient” or “under the influence” when shot. Last year - 2008 - the JSO shot 27 people and 11 died. Pretty much an ordinary year.

Any normal city would have fired the Chief of Police a decade ago, but FL elects the local Sheriff and ours is reelected like clockwork.

You cannot change the culture. Sometimes you cannot even change the people who brought it about. It is a problem but it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to discuss guns in America. Even the traumatic assassination of JFK produced nothing towards gun controls. Then followed the assassination of MLKJr. Again, nothing said. Then followed the assassination of RFK, and again, nobody dared suggest something was wrong here.

Some time ago, parade magazine, had an article about deaths in a week due to gunfire.

The single largest category that I remember was old people committing suicide. Most of the time, the old person had a serious health problem and had chosen not to endure a slow painful death. Sometimes it was a murder suicide, where one spouse help the other to die quickly and then committed suicide.

Not all deaths by gun happen to young people with years of productivity left.