andy2000.org | ANDISHEH NOURAEE

To explain his absence in the days following the shooting by police of Kathyrn Johnston, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington told reporters that he was out of town for Thanksgiving and unable to get a flight back to Atlanta.

Today's AJC reports that Pennington was in New York for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Delta offers approximately 40 daily non-stop flights between NYC and Atlanta. AirTran offers approximately 18.

Were all 58 flights booked?

From today's Washington Post:

"The Iraq Study Group, which wrapped up eight months of deliberations yesterday, has reached a consensus and will call for a major withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, shifting the U.S. role from combat to support and advising, according to a source familiar with the deliberations."

or from my column published October 25, 2006:

". . . the ISG's task is to create political cover for White House and congressional Republicans as they initiate some form of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Such political cover is needed because the White House and congressional Republicans have tarred everyone who wants to withdraw U.S. forces as "cut-and-run" cowards.

Shortly after the November election, Baker's Iraq Study Group will release its recommendations on Iraq. They will include a repackaging of "cut and run" into something more politically palatable. "Trim and trot." "Slash and dash." "Cleave and leave." Whatever they're labeled, the ISG's recommendations will try to allow Dubya to forsake his pledge to "stay the course" and do it in such to way to minimize domestic political criticism."

One week after Atlanta Police killed 88/92-year-old Kathryn Johnston, tried to justify it with bogus public statements, and possibly even asked an informant to lie on their behalf, Ms. Shirley Franklin of Atlanta remembered that she's Mayor.

"There is no question that the tragedy you've experienced and we've experienced is one of the worst the city's experienced," she said. "All of us felt it personally."

It's a mystery to me why Atlanta has had to wait one week for the Mayor to even seem sad that an old woman was gunned down in her house by police. Was she unable to find an appropriately shaded carnation?

One week after 88-year-old Kathryn Johnston was gunned down in her home by Atlanta Police under mysterious circumstances, Mayor Franklin has finally issued a statement:'

“I certainly share the concern that all of us have about the loss of Ms. Kathryn Johnston. The Atlanta Police Department in an honest effort to be transparent has turned this case over to the Federal and State agencies and is cooperating fully as they investigate the incident. The community deserves the truth and I am confident that this will be accomplished through the thorough investigation. Our prayers are with the families of Ms. Johnston and the Atlanta Police Officers.”

A woman is killed in her home. The police lied about the circumstances which led to the warrant (first they said an "undercover officer" bought drugs, then they said a "confidential informant" bought drugs). The confidential informant, whom the police have described as "reliable" has since accused the police of asking him to lie.

And all you're willing to say is that you're "concerned."

Thanks for nothing, Mayor Franklin.

Is it too late to get Time magazine to print a correction?

A Mayor Bloomberg is too much to ask for, I know, but I'd settle for a Vernon Jones.

In newspaper speak, to "bury a lede" is to fail to place the most important part of a news story at the beginning.

In today's AJC, the story "Slain woman's family: 'We just want to see the truth'" hides its most important "new" information in the 33rd paragraph.

"At first police said that the drug buy was made by undercover police, but later they said the purchase was made by an informant."

The possibility of a police cover-up in this case is the news story now.

At 4 a.m. Saturday morning, New York police shot and killed Sean Bell and wounded two of his friends.

We know how many shots police fired (50).

We know that the officers involved likely violated police policy, first by firing into a moving vehicle, secondly by firing 50 shots.

We know that NY city officials recognize that shooting three unarmed men is not what police are supposed to do. We know this because NY’s mayor today stood at a podium and called the men victims.

Last Tuesday afternoon, 88 year-old Kathryn Johnston was shot and killed by Atlanta police during a drug raid on her home.

We still don’t know why police raided Ms. Johnston’s home.

At first, police claimed said that “undercover officers” bought drugs from the home. Sometime over the weekend, “undercover officers” became “confidential informant.”

There’s a big difference. An undercover officer is a trained professional. A confidential informant is quite possibly a crackhead.

Today, APD Chief Pennington informs us that the “informant” has since denied buying drugs from the house and in fact now claims that police have asked him to lie.

Ms. Johnston’s autopsy report has not been released. Even though the autopsy took place last week, it was only this afternoon that the public was informed how many times she’s been shot.

For the past week, Chief Pennington has been mostly silent. He says that he was out of town last week for Thanksgiving and, according to the AJC, “unable” to get a flight back to Atlanta. The AJC did not report where Chief Pennington was or if flights to-and-from were in fact available.

Mayor Franklin has been entirely silent. To the best of my knowledge, she has not uttered a word about Ms. Johnston’s killing. Where is she?

The absence of city leaders has meant that news about Ms. Johnston’s death has been largely dictated by announcements and leaks from the APD -- announcements and leaks that have been incomplete and inaccurate.

City residents deserve to know what happened to Ms. Johnston and why. The Mayor needs to stand in front of a microphone and tell Atlanta everything the city knows.

Let the public see Ms. Johnston’s autopsy report.

Tell us definitively who, if anyone, bought drugs from her home?

Tell us how exactly her address ended up on the search warrant. Did the informant provide an street name and number, or simply a description of a house? Did the informant point at the house in the presence of an officer? How exactly was the information delivered.

Not for a moment do I believe that police went out last Tuesday intending to shoot Ms. Johnston. This was almost certainly a tragic mistake.

Nevertheless, it’s obvious that the APD has not been forthright with the public. Mayor Franklin needs to emerge from wherever it is that she’s been hiding for the past week and lead the city through this mess.

UPDATE: It turns out the Mayor has actually spoken. She issued a statement indicating that she's not going to speak about the shooting or the investigation. She did, however, stand in front of a podium to discuss an affordable housing initiative.

"Back in the 1980s, Daniel Ortega was depicted by the Reagan and Bush administrations as a threat to freedom in the United States. On the American boogeyman scale, he was somewhere between Hugo Chavez and Saddam Hussein."

Read the rest . . .

I wrote this week's cover story in Creative Loafing.

It's called "Atlanta's 11 Least Influential People." Among the those profiled, a man who got fined after someone else broke his septic line, Atlanta residents who have tried for three years to get a dump truck towed from in front of a fire hydrant, a panda nobody cares about, and a city councilman who was ordered by the mayor not to speak.

The story is rambling, silly and disjointed -- not unlike its author.

Special shout-out to Joeff Davis for taking the amazing pictures that accompany it, and to Ken and Mara for editing.