Three disgraced and tearful former Atlanta cops apologized Monday for the botched drug raid that left terrified 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston shot dead by police bullets.
One by one, former officers Gregg Junnier, Jason Smith and Arthur Bruce Tesler — all wearing jail jumpsuits and leg irons — stood before a federal judge and discussed their roles in the events leading up to the shooting and the cover-up afterward. Tesler disputed some details of the prosecution’s account of his role.
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On Nov. 21, 2006, Smith falsified an affidavit to obtain a no-knock search warrant allowing narcotics officers to batter down Johnston’s door. Apparently thinking she was being invaded, Johnston fired a shot from an old rusty revolver through the door. Officers responded with 39 rounds. Five or six struck and killed her.
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Tesler said when he joined the narcotics unit, he was told to “sit, watch and learn” from superiors who cut corners to meet performance quotas for arrests and warrants. “I was a new part and plugged into a broken system,” Tesler said.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/02/23/johnston_sentencing.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab
See, the Civics 101 textbook tells us that the Government Man is to be respected because he is applying a monopoly of coercive force in enforcing the social compact. Sounds reasonable enough, and if that were the case, the Government Man would have all the moral authority he needs to act.
But that's not really how it works. They have performance quotas, where they are tasked with eating the substance of the people and to put them in jail for no good reason.
Like I said, for the most part, government has become destructive of the ends for which it was created.
"I shall now falsify this affidavit and barge into your house and arrest you and ruin your life and the lives of your children who are now in foster care, all because I have a quota to meet."
Is what you call a moral claim to rule?
By the way, these no-knock entries are dangerous because the reasonable person has every cause to believe that he is the victim of a home invasion. Why? Because only criminals barge in unannounced.
