The Atlanta-Journal Constitution has a article out today in which they allege that they have found the confidential informant (CI) who supposedly made the buy.
Atlanta police Chief Richard Pennington confirmed Monday that the informant now claims police asked him to lie about his role in an alleged drug buy that led to the shooting.
The informant, who has not been identified, complained to department officials that the drug investigators involved in the bust had asked him to go along with a story they concocted after the shooting, said Pennington. He said the informant had been placed in protective custody.
The informant told an Atlanta television station that the officers asked him to lie to provide them cover in the shooting.
Pennington confirmed the television station’s account of what the informant had claimed and said it mirrored what the informant had told his internal affairs unit over the weekend.
“The informant said he had no knowledge of going into that house and purchasing drugs,” Pennington said. “We don’t know if he’s telling the truth.”
All seven narcotics investigators and a sergeant have been suspended with pay pending the investigation, Pennington said. Their names were not made public.
“The complete truth will be known,” Pennington said.
If this is true I am just shocked. They all deserve to go to prison for dragging our good names into the mud. And rest assured, if these allegations turn out to be true the cop haters amongst us will have lots of cannon fodder. Not good.
But I am withholding judgement for now since I know, from personal experience, how informants can become quite skittish and outright lie when it looks like their names will be found out. The last thing this guy wants is to be known as a snitch on the streets. So instead he makes up a lie about being asked to lie.
I cannot emphasize enough that CI’s would do ANYTHING to keep a snitch label off of himself so until the investigation is complete I will believe withhold judgement.
If they do discover that the cops lied I will be the first to call for their imprisonment tho.
Crossposted at Say Anything
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Pros and Cons » Joiner’s Tin-foil Hat
[…] I should point out, however, that Flopping Aces tends to look at these types of incidents the way I do — withholding judgment until all of the facts are in, because he understands the realities of the profession. […]