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Breonna Taylor was sleeping in her apartment when police broke down her front door in the middle of the night. The death of the 26-year-old nurse has no consequences for the police, at least for the moment.
No direct charges for fatal shooting in Breonna Taylor: Enraged protesters confront police officers in Louisville.
Photo: John Minchillo (Keystone)
The attorney general was still in the middle of his statement when the first protesters began to gather in downtown Louisville. And when he concluded his remarks, it was clear: this was him, the trigger for the next protests that arose in Louisville and in several other cities in the United States, from New York to Chicago. They ended up with two police officers shot, protesters injured, another curfew, and many people whose trust in the judiciary was once again broken.
Breonna Taylor slept in her apartment
There will be no direct charges against the three police officers who killed black Breonna Taylor six months ago, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Wednesday. He announced a grand jury decision, which concluded that the shooting of Taylor was legal.
The 26-year-old nurse was sleeping in her apartment when police officers broke down the apartment door in the middle of the night. There was an exchange of gunfire between the police officers and Taylor’s friend, in which a police officer was hit in the leg. Officers fired a total of 32 rounds, hitting Taylor at least five times. She died in her apartment.
He died in his apartment; 26-year-old nurse from Louisville Breonna Taylor
Photo: AP
Taylor’s death has no criminal consequences for officials, at least for now. The use of force was justified, Attorney General Cameron said. Because the police were defending themselves, they could not be charged under Kentucky state law.
Only one of the policemen was charged: because it is said that he put the residents of the neighboring apartment in danger with his shots. Cameron confirmed what everyone, for whom Breonna Taylor had long become a symbol of police violence against blacks, feared: that those responsible are almost never held accountable in such cases.
There is a curfew in Louisville and authorities are preparing to protest elsewhere.
And so again, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Louisville and elsewhere to chant Taylor’s name. After a peaceful start, protests in Kentucky’s largest city escalated into violence. Two policemen were shot in the early evening after they went out to investigate a shooting in the city center. According to the local police chief, the officers were not seriously injured, but are being treated at the hospital. That night a suspect was arrested.
In Louisville, there is now a curfew from 9 p.m. to Saturday, and authorities are preparing for more protests elsewhere. As early as Wednesday, a truck crashed into a crowd of protesters in the city of Buffalo, New York. A woman was injured.
Louisville is in mourning: In memory of Breonna Taylor, people have left photographs, posters and flowers.
Photo: Bryan Woolston (Reuters)
The grand jury’s decision and the protests that followed fueled the ongoing debate about police violence and racism. As a black man, he can understand the pain Taylor’s death caused him, said Attorney General Cameron, who is a Republican. “But if we act on the basis of emotion or outrage, there will be no justice.” Justice cannot be based on public opinion.
Cameron did not calm the protesters with this, on the contrary. “We are tired of being just hashtags,” said a black protester in Louisville. “We are tired of paying for our history with our blood and our bodies and only listening to each other to respond to this violence with peace.” She has been protesting for justice for months and nothing has changed.
$ 12 million in compensation promised
The city of Louisville admitted the police misconduct to Breonna Taylor’s family and promised in mid-September to pay her $ 12 million in compensation. The city authorities also promised a police reform. The family’s attorney, Ben Crump, described the absence of criminal consequences as “monstrous.”
