Kathryn Johnston Update

Back in November I wrote about the death of 92 year old Kathryn Johnston in a "no-knock" raid. The whole event was shady to say the least, and looked like there was something very wrong going on.

Yesterday an Atlanta court agreed. Two officers involved, J.R. Smith and Gregg Junnier plead guilty to various crimes including manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation and making false statements. A third, Arthur Tesler is charged with charged with violation of oath by a public officer, making false statements and false imprisonment under color of legal process, but plans to go to trial.

There is one throw away line in the article that I want to address.

He (Fulton County prosecutor Peter Johnson) said Johnston only fired once through her door and didn't hit any of the officers. That means the officers who were wounded likely were hit by their own colleagues, he said.

What this means is that this "no-knock" method, a method used to protect police, actually lead to more harm as the chaos and excitement of the moment added bullets to the air. Besides Ms Johnston, how much more injury could have been prevented by an old fashioned investigation and warrant issue? The general rule to a tense situation is to try to diffuse it, not jack things up. A calmer tact may not be as cool, but it is more effective.

Bottom line, nobody "won" today, but hopefully this will slow down the rapid rise of no-knock entries, put the police under greater scrutiny, and it does show that if citizens put pressure on the system, they still control it.