Didn't want to clutter up the Meme thread but, given his recent postings there I now understand what @T.R stands for: "tRump Republican-too-lazy-to-add-the-second-period-to-his-initials"
Grand Jury Charges 1 Louisville Police Officer Involved in Breonna Taylor Shooting With 'Wanton Endangerment' The charges are not for killing Taylor, but rather endangering her neighbors with wild shots. During protests tonight, two Louisville PD officers were shot.
A grand jury heard the evidence and this is what they came back with. To those on the right, one officer is being offered up on a lesser charge to placate the mob. To those on the left, the system is covering for another police murder of a black person. As much as people are disturbed over police killings of blacks, murder is a specific charge and conditions have to be met to charge someone with it. It would be a miscarriage of justice to charge someone with a crime when the evidence does not support the charge; it would also likely be ultimately futile when a future jury considers the matter according to the law. Judges and grand juries exist to make sure that hurdle is cleared by the DA. No matter your feelings about this matter, you must remember that the accused have rights, too, and can't be rightly prosecuted just to placate others. The grand jury came up with the one charge, so let the wheels of justice turn. Louisville has already fired the officer and made changes to its policies regarding no-knock warrants.
It should go without saying, but there is a huge difference between the lynching of Emmett Till and the police officers killing Breonna Taylor. Till's murderers were racist vigilantes who deliberately and sadistically killed someone when there was no threat whatsoever to send a message to blacks not to mess with white women. The cops in the Breonna Taylor were fired on by Taylor's boyfriend who (giving him the benefit of the doubt) did not hear them announce that they were cops. The cops were thus entitled to some level of self-defense. There's no evidence that has come out so far that the officers involved were motivated by racism, that they deliberately singled out Taylor, or that they meant for her to suffer.
I am not happy about this outcome, but I have to agree with @Paladin summation. If the details of this killing does not disturb you, then I have to question your sense of justice. Breonna Taylor was a young woman who dedicated her short, sweet life to help a system that in the end, turned its back on her. LMPD was issued a “No Knock Warrant” that allowed police to enter her home without announcing themselves as police, however, LMPD claims they did. So Kenneth Williams, Breonna’s boyfriend, opened fire with his legally owned firearm when he heard someone knocking down their front door and his shot injured an officer. Police returned fire, missing Williams completely, but struck Taylor 7 times and ultimately killed her. LMPD wants you to believe that though they asked for and obtained a no knock warrant, that they did indeed knock and announced themselves as police... and that despite that, Williams, a legal gun owner with no criminal record, opened fire on them. No drugs were found in the apartment. There was no evidence that any crime had been committed at all. Williams was initially arrested but later released with no charges against him. Breonna’s family was awarded $12M for her wrongful death, yet no one will have to answer any charges for her death. It seems to me that even the DA doesn’t believe that LMPD announced themselves because they would have kept charges against Williams. The problem we have here is not solely on the LMPD, IMHO. This is ultimately a political problem.
It hardly matters what "legal terms" or "legal defense" or any of that other crap - yes, it's crap. If you end another person's life, you have murdered someone. Defenses for that should not include "she was sleeping".
A few points of clarification: Williams's account is that he heard knocking repeatedly, that Breonna and he separately asked who was there but received no answer, and that he then got his gun and put on Breonna's pants. At least one neighbor found by the NY Times and found by the official investigation said that he heard knocking, while a number of other neighbors reported not hearing anything. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/us/breonna-taylor-police-killing.html Given this, there seems to be little reason to doubt that the cops in fact knocked. (why would Williams and the neighbor say that the police did if they completely did not?) It would be strange to repeatedly knock and never announce. And given one witness heard one "Police!," either he is telling the truth or he is lying/mistaken. Why would he lie or be mistaken about such a thing? So there are two main reasonable possibilities: The officers knocked and announced. Williams heard the knocking but either did not hear or understand the announcing, armed himself and shot without knowing he was shooting at police officers, thinking as he said that it was one of Taylor's exes. OR The officers knocked and announced. Williams knew or suspected it was the cops and fired knowingly at them. If it's the first situation, the shooting is what is called imperfect self-defense. That is to say, someone is justified in using lethal force if they inccorrectly but reasonably think that they are under threat of great bodily harm or death. If it's the second situation, then the shooting is attempted murder. There's probably no way to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it is the second situation. Prosecutors should not bring charges when they do not believe the could prove them beyond a reasonable doubt. So IMO, Williams should never have been charged, based on what we know. But even if the additional information the prosecutors had might close the gap on reasonable doubt, the politics comes in. And the political reality is that trying someone in general for the an incident in which his girlfriend was killed isn't a good look generally. It's worse when the person has become a symbol like Taylor has. It doesn't change the shooting into any less of a tragedy, but it seems fairly clear that Taylor had some level of ongoing involvement with drug dealer the officers were after. He was even caught in a jailhouse recording after the incident saying that Breonna had $14000 of his money. Again, from the Times link: The considerations for Louisville as a city facing a civil suit are different than the considerations for whether the officers committed crimes. The burden of proof is higher for the D.A., the sort of evidence that would come in during a civil suit are different from the sorts of evidence that would come in during a criminal case, and the law is different. Given the undisputed fact that Williams fired first, the law is clear that the officers had some level of justification in returning fire in terms of the criminal context. It is not quite as clear that every bullet fired was a reasonable use of force for the civil context.
Another point of clarification: The warrant that was actually executed was NOT a "No Knock Warrant". The warrant was originally issued as a No Knock, but before the raid, the judge changed it to a "Knock and Identify" warrant.
I don't think the judge changed the warrant to knock and announce, or at least I haven't come across something that says that, and I don't know that a judge could or would reverse oeeself like that. What I've seen reported is that the police on their own initiative decided to knock and announce despite having a no-knock warrant.
This article is behind a paywall, I am afraid, but it says that the judge changed the warrant to a "knock and announce" before the raid. https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html
As I've been pointing out to everyone I can, there is no Constitutional right for us to vote for POTUS. We don't even have a right to vote for presidential electors. Your Governor and State Legislature can simply appoint them as they see fit. What do you think Trump is implying here? I am getting very nervous about Election Night.
What I read there is the following: While admittedly ambiguous, I don't think it is meant to signify that the court changed the order. Rather, it's about the cops' own marching orders. I would think if the court had somehow rescinded the type of warrant, that would have been clearly and ambiguously reported somewhere, as it is a central issue.
Alright. Either way, it wasn't executed as a "No Knock", so the claim that they did knock and announce isn't quite as weird as was suggested.
There are many circumstances where ending someone's life--even deliberately--are not murder. Words have meaning. I think it has been established that she was not asleep.
Please provide examples of when deliberately ending another person's life is not murder. When was it established Breonna Taylor was not sleeping?
Also, in some locations: assisted suicide, euthanasia, and state execution. Also, war. Plenty of circumstances where homicide is not only not murder, it may not even be a crime.
Justified homicide - assumes one has a reason for killing another person. and the other person might have a different opinion. Negligent homicide - one's actions are a direct result of someone else's death. Using semantics as a reason for deciding which bucket to enter the type of homicide is ... just an excuse. A person is still dead. Regardless of how one wants to console themselves and relieve their own guilt.
