Politics: The "No-Knock" Warrant Redux
Kathryn JohnstonBack in April of last year, we pointed out that "no-knock" warrants, which take us one step closer to a police state, are an abomination that should be abolished.
Today, we are somewhat pleased to report that one of the Keystone Kops who took part in the ridiculous botched "drug raid" that killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston in her own home, has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison. From Raw Story:
Police originally said they had gone to the woman's house after an informant bought drugs there. After searching the home and finding no drugs, the officers tried to cover up the mistake, planting three baggies of marijuana, prosecutors said.This shouldn't have to happen. Drug offenses are relatively minor, especially the possession, sale, use, and distribution of marijuana. Such acts hurt nobody except maybe inasmuch as they give rise to petty property crimes.
Tesler was convicted of making false statements, but was acquitted of two more serious charges, violating his oath of office and of false imprisonment under color of legal process.
[...]
Two others, Jason R. Smith and Gregg Junnier, have pleaded guilty to state manslaughter and federal civil rights charges. They have been helping investigators in other cases unrelated to Johnston's death and have not yet been sentenced. Federal prosecutors are recommending 10 years and one month in prison for Junnier and 12 years and seven months for Smith.
Personally, we'd rather see our tax dollars implement better training for police officers, greater community outreach, updated police labs for better forensic evidentiary procedures, more foot patrols, and programs that allow police officers to assist communities in identifying dangerous repeat offenders like serial rapists and perpetrators of violent crimes against the person. Theft sucks, getting ripped off by druggies sucks, but putting those miscreants in jail just teaches them better ways to steal and rob and not get caught the next time, and it takes away needed prison room for the psychopathic and sociopathic offenders who know how to work the system and truly fuck with the masses.
Enough already. No-knock warrants are symptomatic of the creeping (and the emphasis is on "creep") fascism that has been infecting the body of the nation for the past eight years. Time to cut out that cancer.
Stumble It!
posted by ThePoliticalCat @ 10:34 AM
2 Comments:
There's a serious contradiction between the practice of kicking doors in and having an armed populace. That is one reason I like having an armed populace. There is a fellow going to prison for killing a cop who kicked in the wrong address door. Seems to me it is the cops who should be going away.
It would be a very bad idea to kick in my door since I don't do anything that should subject me to it and I'd have no sense of humor.
This creates a bad situation all the way around, for cops who are just trying to do a job to citizens who would find themselve embroiled in a gunfight with law enforcement. The ones responsible for this kind of crap never pay the true costs of their junk.
There needs to be at least 3 other people in that same situation. Bush, Cheney, Rice.
www.pafundi.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Number of Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 4566
Post a Comment
<< Home