On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland provided an update into the Justice Department’s nearly two-year investigation into the practices of the Louisville Police Department in the wake of Breonna Taylor‘s 2020 death.
During a press conference, Garland announced the DOJ found Louisville police officers have discriminated against Black people, noting the Louisville Police Department “relied heavily on pretextual traffic stops in Black neighborhoods.”
“In these stops, officers use the pretense for making a stop for minor traffic offense in order to investigate for other crimes,” he continued.
“Some officers have demonstrated disrespect for the people they are sworn to protect. Some have videotaped themselves throwing drinks at pedestrians from their cars, insulted people with disabilities and called Black people ‘monkeys,’ ‘animal’ and ‘boy.’ This conduct is unacceptable. It is heartbreaking. It erodes the community trust necessary for effective policing and it is an affront to the vast majority of officers who put their lives on the line every day to serve Louisville with honor, and it is an affront to the people of Louisville who deserve better,” he said.
The report found that officers used unreasonable tactics including unjustified neck restraints, police dogs and tasers.
The report also found that the police department executes search warrants without knocking and announcing.
“But Louisville Metro’s and LMPD’s unlawful conduct did not start in 2020. As an LMPD leader told us shortly after we opened this investigation, ‘Breonna Taylor was a symptom of problems that we have had for years,’” the report said.
The 26-year-old emergency room technician’s death sparked nationwide protests in 2020.
Per CNN, on March 12, 2020, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge approved five search warrants for locations linked to Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, a convicted felon suspected of supplying a local drug house. One of those locations was Taylor’s residence.
In the early hours of March 13, ex-detective Brett Hankison and other officers executed a warrant at Taylor’s apartment. Taylor was in bed with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, when the officers announced their presence and then battered down the front door.
Taylor, who was standing in a hallway with Walker, was shot multiple times. Walker was not injured.
“Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Walker said in a 911 call.
Hankison had been standing outside the apartment and is accused of blindly firing through a door and a window. His bullets entered a neighboring apartment, where a pregnant woman, a man and a child were home, according to the state attorney general.
None of the police officers at the raid were wearing body cameras, and there is no video of the night Taylor was killed.
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When you stand with a person trying to kill somebody, especially somebody that is able to fight back, if you don’t do everything in your power to separate yourself from this person you are a willing accomplice and accept the consequences.(trying to use your presence as a shield)