Letter I wrote to ATTN: GOV. Andy Beshear, LT GOV. Jacqueline Coleman, DA Tom Wine, Attn GEN Daniel Cameron, SEN Rand Paul, REO John Yarmuth
RE: The murder of Breonna Taylor by the Louisville, Kentucky
"Is this how you honor your front line workers?
Or do you allow your public servants – police investigators and officers - to automatically assume that the black people in your community don’t add value to your state, so they don’t deserve the care and caution you’d provide in serving and protecting your white citizens?
Officers went through the trouble of applying for a no knock warrant, entering Ms. Taylor's home in the middle of the night all just to decide in the heat of the moment to announce themselves as the police? Why lie? Because, they know that they did this entirely the wrong way.
Breonna deserved better. She’s one of the many front line workers in your state that was there to save your citizens lives when needed. She deserved better than a no knock warrant. She deserved better than the investigator that applied for it and the judge that approved it. Her boyfriend tried to give her that better by protecting her life, even as the police officers who entered her home - and a system that didn’t see her as important enough to consider her safety above the glory of an arrest - didn’t. Breonna’s partner had every right to protect from her from whomever he thought was entering their home and if you’re officers chose not to announce themselves, then Breonna’s partner could only assume that they were intruders come to harm them. The fact that all of your officers chose not to activate their body cams proves that they did not want to be held accountable for actions which they knew were not well thought out to protect the safety of the citizens within the apartment unit. If you are going to apply for a no knock warrant, then you have to factor in citizens right to protect themselves if they have no idea who is entering their homes.
The officers involved not having their body cams activated should not lead the department to assume that the truth cannot therefore be determined. The officers not activating their body cams should be clear evidence that the intent of these officers was to suppress the truth should complications arise.
The thirst to win and accumulate arrests in any case should never overshadow the safety of ANY of your citizens.
This was murder. Under the cover of night, under the protection of a no knock warrant issued by a judge that must not have taken a thorough look at the facts of the case, under the protection of a department with a culture that will protect officers before any person of color, these officers stepped on the rights of these innocent people and they should be held accountable. They should be fired along with anyone along the chain of command that authorized or signed off on this raid of the home of innocent citizens.
Wouldn’t YOU have protected Breonna Taylor who has sacrificed so much to save and serve others? Wouldn’t YOU have protected the woman you loved? Wouldn’t YOU have protected your friend, YOUR significant other? YOUR family? Breonna’s partner had a right and a duty to protect her. He was the only one there that cared enough to do so. The judge didn’t. The police officers didn’t. And no one along the chain of command connected this case cared.
Eight times. She was shot eight times. What was said in that apartment? What was screamed out? We will never know because the body cams of the officers were not activated and that alone is criminal.
In any other profession, professionals would be fired for this type of incompetence, this type of negligence, this type of sloppiness, this type of inability to operate according to the highest standards in a career that could result in harm being done to innocent people and irreplaceable human lives being cut short. This type of lack of planning and lack of compassion is criminal.
I along with others I am calling for you to immediately fire investigators involved in this case and that you see to it that they be charged with manslaughter and negligence, even murder. They should be charged to the full extent of the law. I am calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the Louisville PD. I am calling for a special session to be called to ban no knock warrants.
Breonna was one of your state’s shining stars and her life and all the people in your community she would have touched and saved have lost a true hero."
D. Baucum
Kentucky GOV OFFICE WEBSITE
https://governor.ky.gov