LA LGBT Center Center slams Breonna Taylor decision
The Los Angeles LGBT Center has criticized the Breonna Taylor decision by a grand jury that will not bring charges against the Louisville police officers that killed the 26-year-old emergency medical technician.
Six months after Taylor’s death, the resulting grand jury decision has drawn protests in cities across the US, including Louisville, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York.
Call for justice for Breonna Taylor
In a statement, Terra Russell-Slavin, LA LGBT Center’s Director of Policy and Community Building, said the grand jury’s decision on Taylor’s case had made everyone “outraged.”
“The Center joins millions of Americans in demanding justice for Breonna Taylor,” Russell-Slavin said.
“Not surprisingly, today’s decision reinforces the systemic inequity of the justice system and its continued failure to hold law enforcement culpable for killing Black community members,” she added.
She further said the public should demand accountability from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and to insist that the system be overhauled
The grand jury on Breonna Taylor’s death
The jurors had ruled that in the shooting of Taylor, one of the officers, Brett Hankison, would be charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing shots that hit another home with people inside.
However, the jury– which relied on evidence presented to it by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron– didn’t indict any of the other officers involved in Taylor’s death.
Cameron said the other officers were justified in firing their weapons in response to Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shooting at them once.
Taylor’s death, together with the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, sparked nationwide protests against entrenched racism and police brutality with protestors chanting, “Say her name.”
Reactions to the Breonna Taylor decision
Protests were held against the decision with Portland police declaring a riot outside the justice center and people arrested in Seattle after glass bottles and fireworks were thrown at the police.
Two officers were shot in a Louisville protest though they suffered non-life-threatening wounds. A man was arrested in connection to the shooting.
Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, told CNN: “We somehow got our hopes up in this case. We wanted to believe the system would change.”
Ben Crump, the family lawyer for the Taylors, also told CNN, “We will go to our graves proclaiming that Breonna Taylor did not get justice from the Kentucky attorney general’s office.”