I've put together this assessment and opinion based on news reports. I have no other information. The Breonna Taylor legal outcome is as terrible as it can be. The two police that actually shot her weren't indicted for anything. Another police was indicted for wanton endangerment because he fired blindly and indiscriminately and endangered neighbors though none of his bullets hit Ms. Taylor. He BTW was fired earlier for breaking departmental rules. What is anyone to make of this? Shouldn't someone be responsible for her death, a woman asleep in the comfort of her own home. And I add a young black woman who was an honest public servant and shot by white policemen. Is there not a more sad yet incendiary situation given the racial conflict of the past between blacks and whites, particularly, innocent blacks and white police and exacerbated since George Floyd's murder? The Breonna Taylor story precedes that May 25th death. The news story of her death was resurrected as it had occurred in March of this year and unless George Floyd's murder hadn't occurred and all the actions that followed, worldwide I may add, may not have been brought to public attention at all beyond Louisville, KY.
The story as recounted is that Kenneth Walker, MS. Taylor's boy friend, fearing for their lives because he thought the apartment was being invaded by her previous boyfriend who was a known drug dealer and so he started firing at the "invaders". One police was hit in the leg. The police as is their wont fired back. None of the bullets hit Walker but she was shot 6 times and the lady bled to death. The police fired 36 times. As it turned out with the investigation there was nothing illegal happening in the apartment and no drugs. I ask again who should be responsible?
The reason the police were there was because they were issued a no knock warrant for the apartment because Ms. Taylor's boyfriend of two years earlier was thought to be giving Ms. Taylor's drugs to store for him or that he was still in residence there. The dealer earlier had been seen by a detective handing Ms. Taylor a USPS package at her door. We'll never know what was in that package nor whether or not that actually happened. She had maintained a sort of a distant connection with him as it has been reported but not for anything illegal. In fact the reason they no longer were together was because of his criminality. So let's think through who is to blame.
Is the detective who initially asked for a no knock warrant to blame? I think he is partially because he did not see actual drugs only a postal package. What about the judge who endorsed the warrant? Did she actually question the detective's due diligence? Unless we had been flies on the wall we'll never know. What about the the evidence that was presented to the Grand Jury? Unless that document is revealed we won't know. A prosecutor can skew a case in any direction. This is a young DA who no doubt wants a career and it is common practice among prosecutors to work with and favor the police for obvious reasons. I'm not saying that he intentionally could have skewed the case. Maybe he just didn't see that evidence led to a prosecution without prejudice. I certainly don't know. But the actions of the prosecution should at least be queried. This should be a case for the the federal DOJ to investigate. But given who runs the department can we count on that? And what would be the outcome anyway?
But now we come to the actions of the police at the door. It is not the first time in the history of policing where an apartment or a house was invaded and the wrong people were arrested, shot or killed. How many times have the wrong people been "swatted" because of bad information or because someone who wanted revenge on a person called in a false claim? The police at the door reported they announced themselves and in the report got corroboration from one neighbor. Kevin Walker fired at them as they burst in and so they fired back. How common is that? The police don't know. They're being fired at and they've got a warrant and were warned that the dealer was dangerous. I can understand why those police weren't charged with anything. They were reacting and doing what was expected of them in their jobs, awful as it was.
These circumstances are just that circumstances that were due to mistakes, to misunderstanding, to the actions of a justice conglomerate, the war on drugs and possibly the ambitions of zealous prosecutors and we can't eliminate racial intolerance. How can any of that be actually held to account in this case and have justice served?
There must be some greater good that comes from this woman's untimely and tragic death. Otherwise all seems in vain and fearsome. We grieve for this black woman, her family her friends as well as all those innocently beaten, shot or murdered by the wrong or mistaken actions of the police. Black people, white police, it's a very old story. Leaders need to step up and make changes to a system that is geared to oppress, to actually murder the majority, a much higher percentage being brown or black skinned people, while giving a pass to the class of people that controls everything. This issue is bigger than a few cops doing what they think is their jobs, bigger than one city, one state, one government. We have a moral imperative to treat each other as fellow human beings. How will that ever come about if we keep doing the same things over and over? It's enough to make one desire to crawl into a hole or a cave and never come out.
As for using logic in this opinion piece to rationalize the outcome of this tragedy, I'll quote a friend: when you use a deodorizer in the toilet to cover up the smell of shit, the smell is in reality still there even if all you smell is the cover up.
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