The day after three of his former officers were sentenced to federal prison in the death of an elderly woman, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington denied accusations of widespread corruption and arrest quotas in his department.
At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Bill McKenney, the attorney for one of the convicted officers, talked about misconduct inside the Atlanta department being more pervasive and not isolated to the narcotics unit that was responsible for the shooting death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston in November 2006.
“I don’t believe that, and I’ve worked in corrupt police departments before,” Pennington said.
McKenney also said an FBI report, now in the custody of the Atlanta Police Department, found officers in some units were expected to get nine arrests and two search warrants each month.
“We have no quota system in the police department,” Pennington said. “And I know that for a fact.”
When asked why neither he nor other high-ranking officers knew about misconduct in the narcotics unit, Pennington described the rogue officers’ behavior as isolated.
U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes sentenced former officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Bruce Tesler to prison terms for the illegal drug raid that resulted in Johnston’s death. Smith was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Junnier got six and Tesler received five.
“It was very tough to see,” Pennington said. “We’ve gone through a lot of pain in the Atlanta Police Department.”
The FBI’s report, according to McKenney, also identifies at least three other officers who cut corners and might have broken the law, though they have not been charged with crimes.
Both the FBI and the Atlanta Police Department have refused to release the report. Atlanta police in November denied an Open Records Act request from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution seeking the report.
The FBI has deferred to Atlanta police. On Wednesday, when asked for the report, Pennington deferred to the FBI.
“Can’t you get it from the FBI, too?” he asked.
When pressed further, he said he would “probably release it real soon.”
I am going to give the Atlanta Police Department the benefit of the doubt. They have a thankless job in a city that has a lot of "thankless Thugs".
In the same area where 92 year old Kathryn Johnston was shot dead by the 3 police men in question, a few months earlier their elected state representative was clamoring for more police presence because the thugs and the prostitutes were running over the quality of life.
These particular police did in fact cut corners and hijacked the process for the sake of expediency. They should be punished. Let's never forget the CONTEXT within which they were working though. They were drawn to focus on this area because of the drug dealing and the prostitutes. Both the residents and the store owners had been complaining prior to this tragic incident with the police. Today they STILL protest.
1 comments:
Hell, in my experience, the police in the inner city are thugs too, just slightly better armed than the other thugs. The only time the police deal with the gangs is when they need to eliminate some competition.
They didn't just cut corners. They framed an innocent old woman for something she never did.
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