How To Help Demand Justice For Breonna Taylor Right Now
Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black ER technician, was shot at least eight times by police officers who forced their way into her Louisville apartment just after midnight on March 13.
Neither of the three police officers were wearing body cameras, CNN reported,
On May 21, over two months after Taylor was killed, the FBI announced they had opened an investigation into her death.
Just before 1 a.m. on March 13, three officers forced their way into Breonna Taylor’s Louisville, Kentucky apartment with a battering ram, shooting her at least eight times until she died on her hallway floor. Taylor, a Black woman, was an ER technician and former EMT; her mom, Tamika Palmer, told the Louisville Courier Journal that she had plans of “becoming a nurse and buying a house and then starting a family.”
According to the Courier-Journal, police had a warrant to enter Taylor's home, which she shared with boyfriend Kenneth Walker, without knocking—but she wasn't the focus of their narcotics investigation. Instead, a detective claimed that their primary suspect, who they alleged was selling drugs from a house more 10 miles from Taylor's home, had used her address to receive a package. In a lawsuit filed by Palmer, as the New York Times reports, the family's lawyers say that the suspect was already in custody by the night of Taylor's death.
Louisville police said that, despite their “no-knock warrant,” they did identify themselves before breaking into Taylor and Walker's apartment—but their families, as well as neighbors, said that wasn't true, according to the Courier-Journal. The police also claimed that they only opened fire after Walker shot one of the officers in the leg. Walker, however, said that he believed someone was attempting to break into the apartment, and shot in self-defense. He was charged with attempted murder, as the New York Times reports, although the charges were subsequently dropped.
A post shared by Black Lives Matter (@blklivesmatter) on May 13, 2020 at 3:05pm PDT
None of the police officers—Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove, as New York Magazine reports—have been arrested or fired after Taylor's death, with all three currently on administrative leave. What's more, none of the officers were wearing body cameras. The Louisville Metro Police Department has since announced that all officers will be mandated to wear body cameras, according to CNN, while "no-knock warrants" must now be signed off on by both a judge and the police chief, rather than a judge alone.
On May 21, over two months after Taylor's death, the FBI opened an investigation. In a statement published by CNN, special agent Robert Brown, who's in charge of the Louisville FBI, said, "The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence and will ensure that the investigation is conducted in a fair, thorough and impartial manner." In continued demonstrations in Louisville, protestors are demanding the police be held accountable for Taylor's death, as the New York Times reports. "No justice, no peace, prosecute police," demonstrators chanted last week.
Taylor's mom Palmer told the Courier-Journal that the Louisville police didn't appreciate the gravity of their actions. "I'm not sure that they understand what they took from my family," she said. "Not just me, but my family. This has affected so many of us, so many of her friends."
How can I help demand justice for Breonna Taylor?
Sign a petition calling for justice for Breonna Taylor here.
Sign a second petition here.
Follow instructions to contact the Louisville Mayor's office here.
Donate to the Louisville Community Bail Fund here.
Split a donation between bail funds across the country here.
Donate to Black Lives Matter here.
Sign the Black Lives Matter petition to #DefundThePolice here.
Donate to Campaign Zero, which campaigns for the enactment of policy to end police violence, here.
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