Louisville Will Erupt!

[CJD]

(09-24-2020, 10:01 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: I knew this Taylor thing was going to end badly for everyone involved.

Situations like this have no clear resolution because the police in the shooting were technically working within their legal bounds, and so was Breonna Taylor's boyfriend.

The outcome was unfortunate and predictable. Showing up to a person's house at night when they're sleeping and breaking in, even if you did announce yourself, is going to risk a violent reaction, if a gun is available.

Were the police who returned fire wrong? No, of course not. They were returning fire on someone who was firing at them. This is an understandable and logical thing to do. I personally don't think it was the correct decision, as the third officer showed they could have retreated to safety, but I understand that the gut reaction to being fired upon is to fire back.

Was the boyfriend or Breonna wrong? No, of course not. The boyfriend used his, as far as I know legal, gun to fire on people who had broken down his door. He said he was concerned that the ex boyfriend may be after Breonna because they had a falling out, if I recall correctly, where she broke contact with him. So his concerns were reasonable and, given the circumstance, his reaction was as well.

So that leaves Breonna in the crossfire of two people (or groups of people) who technically did nothing wrong.

How the hell do you get a satisfactory outcome from that?

I think the best way to quell unrest and lower the risk of further damage to not only the institution of law enforcement but also the people and property in Louisville would be to try the three officers for a lower form of murder. Maybe Negligent Homicide or manslaughter. I'm not a lawyer so I don't know exactly what charge would be appropriate. But then, like I said above, the police officers were just following orders and, for the most part, their training. So would that be a just outcome?

From my perspective, the biggest problem is not the individuals but the system as a whole. I understand why no knock warrants and approaching a house you suspect to have drugs or illegal money in it at night is advantageous. You don't want them to have the opportunity to "flush the evidence." But there is inherent danger in executing a warrant in this manner, as we saw. I'm glad Louisville ended the practice of no knock warrants as a result of this, but that's just one piece of the whole issue.

The only thing that is a 100% fact is that Breonna was wronged that night. That is indisputable. She was killed when she shouldn't have been and had those police come during the day, this would not have happened. They would have searched the apartment, found nothing and then went on their way. I believe they already had the drug dealer in custody by that time anyway, if I'm not mistaken.

Maybe night warrants should be reserved for violent criminals, rather than people that maybe, possibly have something in their house but we don't know for sure.

The list could go on for what policies and behaviors could be changed to prevent this from happening, but it's all just a piece of the grander scale in which our society views black lives. The fact that the 3rd police officer was charged for damaging property, but not contributing to the death of an innocent woman is all the evidence you need that the justice system is broken. Her life was viewed as an unfortunate consequence of carrying out the law rather than the responsibility of a law enforcement establishment that too often shoots first and thinks later.

And we've already seen the backlash to this ruling, with two officers shot last night.

I don't know what the solution to this is, but ignoring it or just saying "nah, nothing wrong happened here" is not the solution and will only make things worse.

I sure hope police reform is coming soon...The country desperately needs it.

Why are both left leaners and right leaners repping this post?

That's not supposed to happen on this message board!