Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, etc., etc…. Do we have a problem, or do we have a problem?

What the police did in Louisville, KY is CRIMINAL, and INEXCUSABLE.
PERIOD.

That her murderers/killers were NOT indicted is a indictment itself upon the INJUSTICE system in that town.
This is where vigilante justice comes in handy begins to enter the picture.

Right-Wing Extremists and GOPers are doing it (look at Wisconsin), and now, turn about’s fair play.
They’re permanently marked men – with the “mark of Cain.”
But unlike Cain, look for them to  be killed eventually.

Is it right?
No.

Is it good?
No.

And it’s certainly not legal.

But neither is a FUNDAMENTAL CRITICAL ERROR made with a “no knock” warrant (the suspect did NOT even reside within that apartment complex), and not announcing one’s identity as Law Enforcement Officers (at NO TIME did Louisville LEOs identify themselves – neither before, nor during, in what amounted to a botched home invasion).

But that’s what happens when JUSTICE is neither meted out quickly, nor righteously.
NO PEOPLE IN ANY NATION will long tolerate injustice before they revolt.
And such revolts are most often NOT peaceful demonstrations.

I will also say this:
It is LONG OVERDUE for SIGNIFICANT & FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES to the Grand Jury system, which is lopsided and in NO WAY impartial nor just to suspects, and at its very core, is antithetical to the principles ensconced in our Constitution.

For example,

• Operating in secret, under the direction, but not control of, a prosecutor, not bound by many evidentiary and constitutional restrictions, grand juries may examine witnesses in the absence of their counsel and without informing them of the object of the investigation or the role of the witnesses in it.

• A witness called before a grand jury may be questioned on the basis of knowledge obtained through the use of illegally seized evidence.

• A witness called before a grand jury is not entitled to be informed that s/he may be indicted for the offense under inquiry, and the commission of perjury by a witness before the grand jury is punishable, irrespective of the nature of the warning given him, when s/he appears, and regardless of the fact that s/he may already be a putative defendant when s/he is called.

• Despite the vast power of grand juries, there is little in the way of judicial or legislative response designed to impose some supervisory restrictions on them.¹

Put yourself in the victims’ shoes.
A horrific injustice is done to you – say, for example, that your better half is killed by an off-duty cop who is DUI. While he is arrested for the crime, the District Attorney convenes a Grand Jury to investigate… speeding charges against him – NOT any charges related to her death, or his culpability in it. The grand jury returns an indictment of Running a STOP Sign, but NOT for speeding, and NOT for any matter remotely related to the death and his culpability in it.

That is NOT justice.
And THAT is the picture of what has happened in Louisville, KY with the Breonna Taylor matter.

You know what the cops COULD have done?

Cut off utilities – electricity, water, sewerage, natural gas, etc. – and waited outside the door of the apartment – literally outside the door, and in the parking lot.

I GUARANTEE that the residents (RECALL that cops had the WRONG APARTMENT COMPLEX) would come out fairly shortly.

THEN, they could be peacefully arrested.

It seems that cops aren’t using good judgment, common sense, or even crafty but legal techniques to capture their suspects.

But systemic racism is the “red-headed bastard stepchild” of racism.

And now, it’s all grown up, and bearing its own family of problem children.

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Rudy Giuliani, former Republican New York City Mayor, and Trump confidante, in a June 17, 2020 video interview with Ed Henry of Fox News claimed – without citing sources – that “More police officers are shot and killed by Blacks than police officers kill African-Americans.
The unarmed shootings — which are the ones that are the troublesome ones — there are only 9 of them against Blacks — 20 against Whites in 2019. So that‘ll give you a sense. Meanwhile, there were 9,000 murders of Blacks, 7,500 of which were Black-on-Black.”

The FBI’s UCR (Uniform Crime Reporting) statistics do not support his claim.

Under the category “Officers Feloniously Killed” is the subheading, “Profile of alleged known assailants” which states in part that:

“In 2019, 49 alleged offenders were identified in connection with the 48 law enforcement officers feloniously killed. Of those offenders, the following characteristics are known:
28 of the alleged offenders were White, 15 were Black/African American, and 1 was Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander. Race was not reported for 5 of the alleged offenders. (See Table 42.)”

The government’s record-keeping of detailed statistics concerning Law Enforcement Officers’ interactions with the public, notably as police-involved shootings, is woefully inadequate and often absent wholesale, and researchers, both public and private, have bemoaned and acknowledged that shortcoming as a sad fact. The reason for the dearth of data is because hitherto, they’ve not been required to either collect, or report such data. And without exception, researchers all agree that the Washington Post’s database, which began in 2015, on such matters is the most complete. The Federal regulations are changing, however, to require, and thereby more fully and adequately support fact-finding, and data collection.

The Washington Post’s database shows that since January 1, 2015, 1337 Black people have been shot and killed by police, which constitute 24% of all police-involved fatal shootings since that time.

The United States Census Bureau states that 13.4% of the population is Black or African American alone, while 2.8% of the population are Two or More Races. The Hispanic or Latino contingency of the population is 18.5%, while White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, is 60.1%.

Again, the FBI’s UCR 2018 database on homicide in Table 6, shows that in 2018 (the most recent year for which data is available), there were 2925 total Black or African-American victim deaths, of which 2600 were committed by Black or African-American perpetrators. For White on White homicide, the figures are 3315 total with 2677 perpetrated by Whites.

Again, Rudy Giuliani’s claims are verifiably and demonstrably FALSE.

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— March 13: Officers serving a “no knock” narcotics warrant fatally shoot Breonna Taylor in her home in Louisville, Kentucky.

— March 13, hours later: Police announce the arrest of Kenneth Walker in the wounding of an officer during an exchange of gunfire; Taylor is left unidentified at the news conference, described as “an unresponsive woman who was later pronounced dead.”

— March, April: The shooting stays out of the headlines as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads in the U.S.

— April 27, Taylor’s family files wrongful death lawsuit against police department and city, challenging the police narrative.

— May 13: Top Louisville prosecutor Tom Wine recuses himself from reviewing police investigation, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron named as special prosecutor.

— May 20: Chelsey Napper, Zayden Flournoy and Cody Etherton sue Officers Brett Hankison, Myles Cosgrove and Jonathan Mattingly, accusing them of disregarding human life by spraying gunfire into Napper’s apartment, next door to Taylor’s.

— May 22: Prosecutors announce they will drop attempted murder charges against Walker, who shot at officers in his girlfriend’s home.

— May 28: Walker’s anguished 911 call is released, three days after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota, sparking large protests in Louisville.

— May 29: Mayor Greg Fischer suspends use of no-knock warrants by Louisville police.

— June 1: Fischer fires Police Chief Steve Conrad after officers failed to turn on body cameras in shooting of barbecue cook David McAtee during protests in Louisville.

— June 11: Louisville Metro Council unanimously passes “Breonna’s Law” which bans use of no knock warrants.

— June 14: Pop star Beyoncé writes Cameron, urging him to charge police officers.

— June 23: Officer Brett Hankison, one of 3 officers who fired shots the night of Taylor’s death, is fired for “blindly” firing into Taylor’s apartment.

— June 25: Celebrities join hundreds of demonstrators outside state Capitol calling on Cameron to charge officers.

— June 28: Photographer Tyler Gerth is fatally shot at site of ongoing protests in downtown Louisville.

— July 14: Protesters are arrested for demonstrating on Cameron’s front lawn.

— Aug. 12: Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, meets with Cameron.

— Sept. 5: Hundreds peacefully protest outside Kentucky Derby, urging Cameron to criminally charge the officers.

— Sept. 7: Fischer names Yvette Gentry, first Black woman to lead Louisville Police department, as interim chief beginning Oct. 1.

— Sept. 9: Cameron is included on President Donald Trump’s shortlist of Supreme Court candidates.

— Sept. 15: Louisville announces civil settlement providing Taylor’s family with $12 million and promising police reforms.

— Sept. 23: A Kentucky grand jury, relying on Cameron’s presentation, indicted Hankison for shooting into neighboring apartments, but did not charge any officers for their role in Taylor’s death. An emotional Cameron said the officer’s shots were justified.

— Sept. 24: Dismay spills into America’s streets as protesters say their demands for racial justice have gone unheard.

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Reference
1.  https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-5/indictment-by-grand-jury