Officers involved in death of elderly woman to face charges (ATL)

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Fulton County prosecutors said they intend to ask a grand jury to charge three Atlanta police officers involved in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman killed at her home with murder, according to the lawyer for one of the officers.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard sent a letter saying he will present a murder indictment to a grand jury on Feb. 26 against Officer Gregg Junnier and the two other policemen involved in the shooting, said Rand Csehy, Junnier's attorney.

Kathryn Johnston died and three officers were wounded in the Nov. 21 shootout when police used a no-knock warrant to search for drugs in Johnston's northwest Atlanta home.

When officers raided her home without first announcing their presence, police say Johnston fired a handgun and officers returned fire, killing her. Narcotics officers said an informant had claimed there was cocaine in the home, but none was found.

A week after the shooting, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington asked the FBI to lead a multi-agency probe into the shootout."

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=87246

[Turbineguy]

1. What about

"Bum Scoops", the informant?

[Porcupine]

2. So when are Cops going to have to carry video gear?

As we all know from TV a small, but usefull video camera can be fit to a hat brim. A heck of a lot of these "when did the policeman start shooting and what did he see...." issues would be solved simply be recording their shifts on video.

I'm sure it would save lots of time in the courtroom and more than make up for the installation cost. We could see for ourselves if the woman had a gun or the officers were following protocol.

I have my suspicions as to why police don't want these things on them though. They are used to fudging the law or procedure to get arrests. Not good enough.

[951-Riverside]

3. While these cameras are extra small....

The battery packs, wires and recording devices are very cumbersome plus there are privacy issues, do you really want to be video recorded while talking to a cop in your own home?

[Porcupine]

4. The whole unit could be the size of a Razr

The actual camera should fit into the officers headgear and bluetooth transmit to a DVD set in the car. The officer can then view, but not modify the disk, on his laptop.

None of this is particularly hard. Excuses.

[951-Riverside]

6. Porcupine since you're such an expert

...please show everyone this bluetooth video transmitting headgear and the rest of the other unsubstantiated crap you seem to think exists.

[Porcupine]

7. Tony Hawk helmet cam-$86.75!!

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Skaters can do this!! http://www.compuvisor.com/tohahe.html">For under a hundred bucks yet. So skaters can videotape their rides but cops are somehow restricted.

But London Police have them already.
BBC:Beat officers to use head cameras

Eight Metropolitan Police officers in Haringey, north London, will use the devices on the beat, to record evidence of people causing trouble.

The tiny £1,800 cameras, each the size of an AA battery, will be fitted onto the side of the officers' headgear.

Police say the clearly visible cameras will act as a deterrent, as well as an evidence gathering tool.

I think they're getting ripped off on the price. The whole thing could feed to an Iphone and the cop could save gear weight.


Another guy on Youtube who has a helmet mounted motorcycle cam

I doubt the LAPD will want these anytime soon as it will limit their ability to beat the crap out of people and extort bj's from hookers. Could you imagine cops acting withinthe law?

[Judi Lynn]

10. Interesting! They would never willingly submit to oversight. Too constricting,

would keep them from being "them!"

Don't forget all the other things they do, too, like place "throw downs!"

Thanks for the info.

[MadMaddie]

5. A camara would be great but the issue happened long before

they "no knocked" on this elderly woman who lived alone. What was she supposed to do? They were dressed in black with guns....

They could have gone in the daytime with a female officer, they looked at her police record and it was clean, common sense should have raised a red flag at this point. And yes the informant what was his motive, trying to keep him out of jail?

I am always one to give the Police the benefit of the doubt but this is negligence.

[Jonathan50]

8. Someone with Huey Freeman as their avatar

Shouldn't "always give the Police the benefit of the doubt".

Huey is a cynical little f*cker, you should be too.

And no, it isn't "negligence", the cops are being charged with murder, something which prosecuters very rarely do.

If it was "negligence" they would be charged with manslaughter.

[tulsakatz]

9. a no-knock warrant?

that sounds unconstitutional to me but then again, these days, it seems like anything goes!!

Still, it doesn't seem right that they can just walk into a house and start searching based on nothing more than suspicion..........

[CBGLuthier]

12. they have been around for years

the idea is that drug dealers will destroy the evidence. I agree they should be unconstitutional but I think the SC has (erroneously) ruled them OK.

[CBGLuthier]

11. they should also go after the god damn judge

No Knock warrants are in no way constitutional and I don't really give a damn what the SC has ruled.

This was an "accident" waiting to happen because a judge just rubber stamped the cops request for the no knock.

[Porcupine]

13. Accountable judges? Thats' a matter/antimatter equation.

judges are never accountable except by the very, very rare impeachment. To get impeached a judge has to be witnessed by a large number of people sodomising an underage boy on the bench.

The law doesn't apply to judges.

[MasonJar]

14. If a 92 year old woman has drugs, so what. They should have done

their homework and found out the age of the resident and then afforded her the courtesy of knocking.