Police Gun Down 92-Year-Old in Drug Raid

Here we go again. This scenario is becoming all too familiar. Police in Atlanta, Georgia have gunned down a 92-year-old woman in her home in a drug raid gone bad.

How many of these stories have we heard over the past few years? This is getting ridiculous.

92-year-old Kathryn Johnson had lived in her Atlanta home for 17 years--ALONE. Her niece had bought her a handgun for protection--a gun that was registered. Narcotics agents had supposedly made a drug deal at the residence earlier that day, a deal that involved an unidentified young man. A warrant was obtained for police to raid the home without knocking on the door.

When police broke through Johnson's door, the 92-year-old opened fire, as any normal citizen would when it is obvious they are at danger of being killed in a home invasion. Police returned the gunfire, killing Johnson.

Sooner or later someone in law enforcement, whether it is the Feds, the State Police, or local police, is going to have to pay the ultimate price for these 'mistakes.' In other words, someone needs to go to prison.

In addition, situations such as these highlight the danger of the nation's failed 'war on drugs.' This ill-conceived program has given law enforcement officers too much freedom to push the limits of the law, and even cross commonly-accepted legal boundaries, such as private property rights. Under the current system, police can essentially confiscate your property if they suspect drugs are being sold out of it or grown on it...even if you, the owner, had nothing to do with these crimes.

This is not to mention the fact that non-violent suspects should not be subjected to the violence of a home invasion by law enforcement, which, by its very nature, is dangerously violent for both law enforcement and the suspects. Kathryn Johnson is not the first American to be gunned down by mistake by police in a case of mistaken identity in home invasions. As long as we insist on keeping a failed program such as the 'war on drugs,' she won't be the last.

It is time we as citizens put a stop to this insanity. Citizens who are gunned down are owed a debt by the law enforcement officials who make these kinds of mistakes. They should be charged with a felony and placed on trial at the very least. The victims and their families are owed financial recompense.

In addition, we need to make it clear to our elected officials that it is time to end the war on drugs. Too much money, time, energy, resources, and prison space is being given to track down, arrest, prosecute, and imprison non-violent drug offenders. Innocent lives are being lost in a futile cause--both those of law enforcement officers who are forced into these raids and the innocent citizens who get caught in the crossfire.

We need to demand that it stop.