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-   -   Serious Breonna Taylor #SayHerName ARRESTS MADE! (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=437727)

VisionofMilotic July 14th, 2020 3:42 PM

Breonna Taylor #SayHerName ARRESTS MADE!
 
It's been over 120 days since Breonna Taylor was killed. I haven't spoken of her death on the forum, because I have been trying to look for more uplifting stories during this difficult season. However, last night I had a dream about Breonna where I discovered a video of the last few moments before she was killed. I have decided not to be quiet on this topic any longer.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Breonna was a bright, warm, lovely young lady that died in a tragic and unnecessary way this March at the hands of the police. I think her story is underreported compared to the murder of George Floyd, but the loss of Breonna is equally heartbreaking, and I wanted to share something about her on the forum because it's a killing that especially touches me. She would have turned 27 in June.

Breonna was a paramedic for EMS in Louisville, Kentucky and on her way to becoming a nurse. In her Facebook post last year she talked about how inspired she felt to help others after seeing her uncle recover from a stroke, writing: Working in health care is so rewarding. It makes me feel so happy when I know I've made a difference in someone else's life. I'm so appreciative of all the staff that has helped my uncle throughout this difficult time and those that will continue to make a difference in his life.
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/869930040/as-the-nation-chants-her-name-breonna-taylors-family-grieves-a-life-robbed

On March 13th 2020 at 12:40 am 3 plain-clothed police officers raided the apartment where Breonna and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker slept, executing a warrant meant for someone else entirely. They were looking for evidence to incriminate a Jamarcus Glover, whom they suspected of selling drugs. Breonna and Kenneth had no drugs in their home, and no criminal records of any kind. Her only connection is that she had once dated Jamarcus Glover.

Had the police been more diligent in their investigation they would have been aware that the person they wanted, Glover, had already been arrested the day before and was in their custody!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/breonna-taylor-family-sues-wrongful-death-killed-police-louisville/

The officers on the scene, Jonathan Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hakison had obtained a special type of warrant known as a no-knock warrant so they could come in and surprise residents before any potential drugs could be hidden or destroyed.

Kenneth, a licensed gun owner, heard strangers outside of their apartment. He says that he asked who they were, but they never answered him. In mere seconds the police began breaking down the door with a battering ram.

Fearing burglars when he saw the group of armed, plain-clothed men forcing their way in, he fired a warning shot out the window to deter them, which hit one officer in the leg.

The police retaliated by lighting up the entire building up with nearing 30 rounds of bullets, shooting every room from the bathroom to living room, kitchen and into the neighbors apartments too.

Kenneth survived, but Breonna was riddled with bullets. She didn't do anything. She was unarmed. She never had any drugs, or anything illegal in her home. She was a good person whose career was devoted to helping people, but she was literally attacked while she was defenseless in bed. She did not need to die.

Kenneth was arrested and charged with assault and attempted murder of a policeman because the officer's leg was injured. The charges against Kenneth Walker were dropped by the prosecutor, and he has been released. The officers who killed Breonna have not yet been charged with anything however. Only one of them, Brett Hankison, was fired. The others were just reassigned.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53111709

The family of Breonna Taylor currently have a lawsuit against the Louisville police department for a wrongful death, and are seeking criminal charges as well for the officers who shot her. My deepest condolences to this family, and I fully support them in their quest for justice.

Their suit outlines a history of using excessive force by officers Cosgrove and Hankinson, and there are even allegations that Officer Hankison also abused his power as an officer to sexually assault multiple women.

https://www.vox.com/2020/6/12/21288932/police-officers-sexual-violence-abuse-breonna-taylor

Hankison not only appears to be a corrupt cop, but the police department sounds woefully incompetent. A no-knock warrant should probably have never been issued in this case. To get a judge to approve one, officers claimed they saw their suspect take a package from Breonna's Taylor's home, and they thought he was stashing drugs there. However, a U.S. postal inspector in Louisville has contradicted this report, saying that his office found "no packages of interest" going to Taylor's residence. They literally had no reason to be at her door. Let's not forget also that the person they were trying to take down was already in their custody.

https://www.wdrb.com/news/what-we-know-about-the-lmpd-officers-involved-in-raid-on-slain-emt-breonna-taylor/article_92ce412e-97ba-11ea-973b-63af762490fe.html

Detective Joshua Jaynes who sought the warrant from courts based on evidence that may have been untrue was placed on administrative leave by the police department, and the matter referred to the FBI to investigate.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/16/breonna-taylor-louisville-detective-joshua-jaynes-no-knock-warrant-reassigned/3200277001/

One step forward has been that the policy of no knock warrants has been challenged, and a ban on them in Louisville, Kentucky passed unanimously by the city council, called "Breonna's Law."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/11/us/louisville-breonnas-law-no-knock-warrants-ban/index.html

I hope to see this go beyond a local ordinance, and passed as law on a state and nation-wide level. I understand in theory why this warrant would be issued, but the Breonna Taylor case demonstrates how problematic it is to send police officers into homes like this unidentified. The possibility that drugs could get lost doesn't compare to the lives of human beings that could be lost unnecessarily this way, be they the police or civilians.

I have talked about this case with people I am close to who happen to come from the opposite side of the political aisle from me, and are generally supportive of the police and increasing their size and funding. While almost everyone has sympathy and will acknowledge the situation is tragic, not everyone agrees with me that the police should be prosecuted for Breonna's death because a shot was fired at the cops, underscoring that a police officer has the right to defend themselves.

I think this is an improper use of force for self-defense. The police knew they drove up in unmarked cars, had no uniforms and broke down the door in the dead of night, packing guns. To not expect that this would terrify and confuse the residents is crazy to the point that it defies common sense. In the United States almost anyone can legally buy a gun, and many homeowners would fire under these circumstances because there would be no point of reference for you as police officers. It would look like an armed robbery or a thrill kill had come to your door.

While an officer returning fire after being shot at could reasonably be self-defense, I feel the response they gave was disproportionate considering the sheer volume of firepower that they unleashed into that home. One officer shot in the foot was not comparable to spraying everything in sight with bullets. Breonna didn't die because she was struck with one or two bullets, she was hit with 8 of the dozens and dozens of rounds fired.

The cops emptied entire clips all over the building, and could have hit any innocent person, as they unfortunately did. This is far and beyond just trying to stay alive. And I think there should be consequences for reckless open fire by the police. They didn't know what they were hitting, and didn't care. I don't want any of them to be police officers, I think it's dangerous to give people off their hinges guns and badges. I want these guys prosecuted, sentenced and to serve some time. It's past time to restructure the way we police in this country.

Fairy July 14th, 2020 4:18 PM

#SayHerName

The fact that the people in question who the police were searching for originally were already apprehended at the police station before the no-knock warrant was carried out is.. horrifying.

Dragon July 14th, 2020 5:44 PM

#SayHerName

I hope there will be justice for her, her family and loved ones. Those cops should be arrested for this.

Bug July 14th, 2020 6:10 PM

Someone named Jelani Curtis made this website that allows for easy access to contacting the people who can make a change; like the LMPD Interim Police Chief and the Louisville Metro Mayor. There's a button to pull up phone numbers, a button to pull up email addresses, and a button to set a reminder to call later. They also have a way for you to get walked through the phone call if you're not sure what to say.

It's so important to hold these corrupt people accountable. Colorado made a huge step of ending qualified immunity for police officers. This means that police officers can no longer get away with breaking the law just because they're police officers. There's still so much to do. Thank you for making this thread, it helped me to find out more details about what happened that I didn't know before.

#SayHerName #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor

VisionofMilotic July 19th, 2020 11:02 PM

A Change.Org petition to bring Breonna's killers to justice has made history. It has passed over 10 million signatures and still growing every second. It is now the second most signed petition that the website has ever had.
https://www.businessinsider.com/breonna-taylor-changeorg-petition-surpasses-10-million-signatures-2020-7

This makes me happy. My name is there. If you want to be a signatory too then here is the link my friend.

https://www.change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor

MarinaSpeaks July 20th, 2020 8:46 AM

This makes me so sad.. and one of the main issues preventing justice for victims is qualified immunity - the legal doctrine that Breonna's mother would have to be overcome to win her lawsuit. This law unfortunately shields officers from being held liable for actions that don't violate 'clearly established law', which is probably the WORST decision the supreme court could have ever come up with given how corrupt, inexperienced and undertrained American police officers often are.

Becuase of qualified immunity, cops can literally invade homes,destroy people's property and even murder unarmed citizens without facing punishment as long as it's a unique breach of people's rights. It's ridiculous, honestly. This law allows police to completely avoid having to use common sense in certain situations.

Here is another petition you can sign

Nah July 20th, 2020 1:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VisionofMilotic (Post 10183472)
A Change.Org petition to bring Breonna's killers to justice has made history. It has passed over 10 million signatures and still growing every second. It is now the second most signed petition that the website has ever had.
https://www.businessinsider.com/breonna-taylor-changeorg-petition-surpasses-10-million-signatures-2020-7

This makes me happy. My name is there. If you want to be a signatory too then here is the link my friend.

https://www.change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor

I went and signed it just now

Never really cared for petitions tbh since it never seemed to me like they have any real impact, but signing an online petition is also such an easy thing to do, so why not I guess

Signed the ones for George Floyd and Vanessa Guillen while I was at it too

VisionofMilotic September 2nd, 2020 8:11 AM

I felt hopeful when I saw the tens of millions of people who came together and signed the change.org petition to bring charges against the police for killing Breonna Taylor. I thought with so much public presure it would be hard to sweep her death under the rug. But it's now September, going on 6 months after she was shot to death and still no charges yet. I have also learned a new detail that is really distressing, and demonstrates the level of corruption and shameless the judicial system in Louisville, Kentucky is willing to sink to. Not only has there been no prosecution so far, but the prosecutors would even stoop to smearing Breonna.

Sam Aguilar, one of the attorneys representing Breonna Taylor’s family, has revealed that law enforcement tried to offer Jamarcus Glover a plea deal, if he would say that Breonna was part of an organized crime syndicate. This is ridiculous!

For those who do not know, Glover is the guy who was 10 miles away that the police were looking to find drugs on when they raided Breonna's apartment, and made this fatal mistake.

This is such an apalling inference from prosecutor Tom Wine's office about the now deceased Breonna Taylor that even Glover, who is a convicted felon, has said that Breonna Taylor was never part of any of his criminal activities.

https://wfpl.org/did-prosecutors-offer-jamarcus-glover-a-plea-deal-that-incriminated-breonna-taylor/

I'm not a big fan of Daniel Cameron, the district attorney general who was asked to take over the investigation into Breonna's death from the local prosecutors. He seems scared and weak, but for this case to have been in the hands of prosecutor Tom Wine would have been a travesty. I'm glad that his office at least was pressured to recuse themselves. Wine seems completely untrustworthy to me.

My lingering concern is that is they would try to paint Breonna Taylor as a criminal, a woman who was an ems worker and everyday worked closely with law enforcement agents as part of her job, then I fear that no victim is safe from being blamed and demonized in a smear campaign, no matter how upstanding a citizen they are. I really hope social media doesn't take this and run with it, and we start seeing misinformed memes about Breonna Taylor like I have started to come across about George Floyd. I know this game, I have seen it before. After enough innuendo that you are someone shady (no matter how unfounded) the public can become desensitized, and stop caring what happened to you, figuring you are a thug and must have somehow caused your own death at the hands of police. Let's not let that happen here. #Sayhername

Sothis September 2nd, 2020 2:15 PM

They have a law for her, they are making a movie, but there has been no justice. No justice for her or her family. Arrest these officers, hold them accountable. Police are not infallible.

Nah September 3rd, 2020 4:28 AM

This was all to be expected unfortunately. Smearing and the like has been used for years to try to justify unjustifiable police killings. There was never really any hope that anything substantial was going to come of this or any of the other murders either. Petitions and protests don't actually force the people in power to do anything, and so they choose not to, as is seen by the fact that the multiple murders committed this year are just a handful in a long line of this, and how the government has been, at best, dragging its feet the entire time. Making matters worse, for every person who thinks this is all wrong and wants change, there's at least one other who doesn't.

All I think is really going to happen is that a number of token gestures are going to be made to attempt to appease the populace without doing anything to truly tackle the problem, so some people can pat themselves on the back on say "wow we really dealt a blow to racism today!" when they really didn't. Some of these things have happened already--the re-naming of some public buildings, the confederate flag being banned from NASCAR races, a few statues of racist figures being taken down. Then perhaps someday Congress will pass that bill banning chokeholds and creating a "police misconduct registry". And while these things are nice and some of them are long overdue (or that and it needs to go further in the case of the confederate flag), none of them are really even going to begin to put a stop to the problem at hand.

Nah September 16th, 2020 5:15 AM

so an update: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/breonna-taylor-settlement-louisville.html

The short version is:
-a $12 million settlement has been paid to her family
-the city does not have to admit to any wrongdoing
-charges have not yet been brought against the officers involved
-the Louisville PD has promised to make several reforms

Fairy September 16th, 2020 6:40 AM

Money doesn’t make the problem go away. People need to be held accountable! ;(

#SayHerName

moon September 16th, 2020 10:12 AM

These "officers" really need to face severe consequences but it won't happen as long as a city can escape without admitting wrongdoing like this. No money in the world can replace a lost loved one. Breonna deserved so much more.

These people are not police. They are criminals. The horrifying fact that the leaders of the country do not acknowledge this shows that they are criminals too. For the love of everything, go and vote in November.

VisionofMilotic September 22nd, 2020 4:24 AM

I have a bad feeling about the state of emergency declared by the mayor and Louisville police department, and seeing the downtown area get barricaded off ahead of the pending announcement about the Breonna Taylor case. The AG is expected to make public the findings from his office soon and a decision on indictment of the officers who killed Breonna.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/breonna-taylor/2020/09/22/louisville-police-restrict-access-downtown-anticipating-breonna-taylor-decision/5862836002/

There's been little transparency with this investigation, and it's possible that the grand jury deliberations have gone underway already. My fear is that the police chief is not simply being cautious, but knows that an indictment isn't coming, and is waiting for the town to erupt in fury when the killers escape.

I hope I am wrong, but so many people have been killed wrongfully by the police with no justice served for them like John Crawford, Amadou Diallo, Philando Castile, Eric Garner. I am scared Breonna might become a statistic like that. Please let my worries be needless, and let charges move forward.

professor plum September 23rd, 2020 9:34 AM

Announcement
Quote:

A Jefferson County grand jury has indicted one of three Louisville officers will face criminal charges in the March 13 fatal police shooting of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor.

It was announced Wednesday:
Former detective Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment.
Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was not indicted.
Detective Myles Cosgrove was not indicted.

The uncertainty swirling around the decision on possible criminal charges in Taylor's death has drawn both local and international attention as protesters have marched and chanted on Louisville's streets for 119 consecutive days.

Protesters in Louisville and supporters across the U.S. have called for "justice for Breonna" and other Black Americans, such as George Floyd in Minneapolis, who have been killed by police.
No murder charges? Are you kidding me?????

Dragon September 23rd, 2020 11:41 AM

I have no words; that’s really messed up.
No justice for her at all and it’s really aggravating.

ThatStuff!! September 24th, 2020 10:56 AM

all hell about to break loose

VisionofMilotic October 20th, 2020 12:01 PM

This is hot-off the press. The lack of justice for Breonna Taylor's death just became even more sickening. As you know already, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove were not charged with any crimes. They weren't even fired. Brett Hakison was charged only with a minor crime, 3 counts of wanton endangerment. He was not charged with murder or even manslaughter for killing Breonna Taylor. The charges he faces are just for the property damage he did by shooting into the neighboring homes. Her death was completely overlooked. He can receive as little as a year in jail for a wanton endangerment charge and a fine.

A bombshell was dropped today from the grand jurors. They could not legally go public with everything they wanted to say before now, but lawyers for the jurors petitioned a judge to disclose the jury proceedings over the protests of Attorney General Cameron. The courts are finally allowing them to speak freely in press statements.

The reason that neither Hankinson or any of the officers involved in Breonna Taylor's killing were charged with homicide wasn't because the jury didn't think they should be charged with more. They weren't charged because the jury was never sent any homicide charges to deliberate on! The only charges they were ever presented with were the bogus wanton endangerment charges. They can't vote for a charge they aren't given. The grand jury has communicated that they didn't feel that the actions of the police were justified, nor that these should be the only charges, but they were never given a choice to recommend anything serious.

The attorney general rigged the game from the beginning in a way that made it impossible for the jury to return a charge other than this one he wanted. Then like the weasel that he is Cameron pretended that the jury was acting independently, and that he tried to get justice, but has no choice and had to accept their recommendation. I hope this opportunist's political career goes up in flames.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/breonna-taylor/2020/10/20/breonna-taylor-grand-jury-judge-rejects-camerons-secrecy-argument/5993546002/

https://www.kxan.com/news/national-news/judge-says-breonna-taylor-grand-juror-can-speak-about-case/

Sothis October 20th, 2020 6:03 PM

So he was hiding behind the jury, putting all the blame on them?
What a fucking weasel.

Hermione Granger October 20th, 2020 6:45 PM

I did read that there were witnesses that changed their stories regarding this case, so I am skeptical over this matter because of that. Believe what you want, but with changes to witnesses stories might be people lying so that is going to make things very difficult. I also don't know if people heard that these cops supposedly had devices on them that recorded what they were saying outside her home.

I didn't read that on those fake news websites like national enquire.

VisionofMilotic October 20th, 2020 7:57 PM

What I have researched is that 12 neighbors who were in the apartment building on the night of the shooting said that the police did not identify themselves as officers as they made their entry. This is relevant because you cannot be expected to know that a plain-clothed person is a police officer if they don't tell you. I think this sounds consistent with Breonna's boyfriend testimony. He called 911 for help, crying that someone had broken in and killed his girlfriend. You wouldn't call the cops if you knew that they were ones doing this.

https://www.cbs17.com/news/national-news/12-witnesses-say-cops-didnt-id-themselves-in-breonna-taylor-raid-attorneys-say/

I am not sure if this attorney general even presented testimony from all of the witnesses during this farce since he clearly wanted to protect the police. He did produce 1 witness who was used to buttress the story of the police, claiming that they actually did announce themselves as officers. However, this was not what the very same witness Aarin Sarpee originally said. When he was first interviewed by an investigative team a week after after Breonna was killed he stated like everyone else that the police never identified themselves. However, months later he changed his story to exactly the opposite of what he previously said, and now says that he heard them say, 'This is the cops.'

https://www.vice.com/en/article/bv8qyd/breonna-taylor-investigation-witness-changes-story

I believe the truckload of witnesses against the police in this instance over the single flip-flopping witness who testified for the police.

Hermione Granger October 21st, 2020 6:10 PM

I looked on CNN's website and was her boyfriend ever asked about shooting at them, as I did see it being mentioned that he shot at them.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/02/us/breonna-taylor-grand-jury-recordings/index.html

I do think changes needs to be made when serving warrants if they weren't in police gear. And to teach officers restraint from shooting their guns.

Nah October 31st, 2020 6:01 AM

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/breonna-taylor-boyfriend-kenneth-walker-sued-by-louisville-police-sgt-jonathan-mattingly-for-emotional-distress-2020-10-29/

VisionofMilotic August 6th, 2022 6:54 AM

There were major new developments this week that may finally mean some justice for Breonna Taylor, and her loved ones. I considered making a new thread for discussion, but thought it could provide more context to those who perhaps hadn't followed what happened over the past few years to update this topic. It's been a long journey to get to this point.

Previously the Kentucky state Attorney General refused to bring forward any criminal charges related to Breonna Taylor's death in a decision that sparked public criticism, protest and outrage. Only one officer Brett Hankinson was charged, and with a lesser offense of endangerment for Breonna's neighbors, not her, and he was acquitted.

I honestly didn't expect that anything more would happen to the police who killed Breonna. However, the federal government began an investigation of their own into the violation of Breonna Taylor's rights, and Attorney General Merrit Garland announced Thursday evening that his Department of Justice has charged the 4 Louisville Metro Police Department all with federal crimes for Breonna Taylor's death. The officers Brett Hankinson, Joshua Jaynes, Kelly Goodlett and Kyle Meany have been arrested.

They not only killed an innocent, unarmed woman asleep in her bed, but the feds assert that they fabricated the "evidence" they used to sneak into her home. Specifically, Jaynes and Meany concocted the story that Breonna had received packages from an ex who was suspected of drug crimes. This was not true, they knew this from the beginning, and on the basis of the lies they told, a warrant was issued to them wrongfully to the raid, where they killed her wrongfully. After Breonna was shot to death in the home invasion the indictments says that officers met secretly in a garage after Breonna was killed, to work out a false story to give. Goodlett allegedly worked with Jaynes to falsify the warrant affidavit for Taylor’s home, and then file a false report to cover up that false affidavit. In addition to the charges of excessive force used against Breonna, her boyfriend and everyone in the vicinity with intent to kill, there are charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators.

They may sound like technicalities, but these are weighty charges that could put them away forever. This is copied from the department of Justice's website. All of the civil rights charges involve alleged violations of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242, which makes it a crime for an official acting under color of law — meaning an official who is using or abusing authority given to that person by the government — to willfully violate a person’s constitutional rights. A violation of this statute carries a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment where the violation results in death or involves an attempt to kill. The obstruction counts charged in the indictments carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years; and the conspiracy counts carry a statutory maximum sentence of five years, as does the false-statements charge.

There's more, the DOJ has a seperate investigation ongoing into the pattern and practice of the Louisville police. Nobody believes that they haven't done corrupt things like this before, and they want to see what other human rights violations and crimes over the years the police may have committed against people and suppressed.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23293923/breonna-taylor-police-charged-justice-department

Sothis August 6th, 2022 11:27 AM

This was on the news! They lied about her receiving illegal drugs and FORGED an arrest warrant to enter the apartment.
This is straight up intentional evil. How on earth do people do things like this?


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