Evil motherfuckers:

An Atlanta police narcotics officer has told federal investigators at least one member of his unit lied about making a drug buy at the home of an elderly woman killed in a subsequent raid, according to a person close to the investigation.

In an affidavit to get a search warrant at the home Nov. 21, narcotics officer Jason R. Smith told a magistrate he and Officer Arthur Tesler had a confidential informant buy $50 worth of crack at 933 Neal St. from a man named “Sam.”

But narcotics officer Gregg Junnier, who was wounded in the shootout, has since told federal investigators that did not happen, according to the person close to the investigation. Police got a no-knock warrant after claiming that “Sam” had surveillance cameras outside the Neal Street residence and they needed the element of surprise to capture him and the drugs.

At this point, you have to start thinking about charging these thugs with murder.

The “evil” part is not that these cops took a shortcut. That’s gross incompetence that caused a homicide, it’s negligence, and it’s betraying the public trust. But it isn’t evil. The “evil” part is their attempt to enlist an informant after the fact to help cover their killing of an 88-year-old woman — and if the informant is to be believed, threatening him when he refused to cooperate. That’s the evil.

Also, watch closely. Atlanta officials may well try to blow this off as an isolated case of a few rogue officers acting out. That’s not what it is. If you think this is the first time these cops — or others, for that matter — took a shortcut in a drug case, you haven’t been paying attention.

Drug policing is a dirty business. It’s yet another reason why forced-entry raids for drug crimes have caused and will continue to cause one damned tragedy after another.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 7:39 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.