Following up on the story of a toddler who was critically injured when a Georgia drug task force set off a flash bang while executing a no-knock warrant, WaPo's Radley Balko points out the same unit was responsible for the death of an innocent pastor, Jonathan Ayers, in 2009.
In my post on Ayers, I noted how little professional accountability there had been for the death of Jonathan Ayers. The cop who killed him was fired, but only after it was revealed that he lacked the training. One other law enforcement official was fired for lying about the training. No one was disciplined for the actual killing of Ayers. Rickman, Terrell, and the other sheriff who oversees the task force were all reelected.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be all that surprised that a sheriff who sees drug suspects as “terrorists” also oversees a drug task force that has now killed an innocent pastor and burned a two-year-old child.
No-knock warrants should be unconstitutional, but given that courts continue to side with law enforcement due to the war on drugs (terrorism, etc., etc.), you should demand that your state-level candidates take a stand on the issue by returning C4L's candidate survey.
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PDFTags: civil liberties