For immediate release: September 23, 2020
Contact: Domenica Ghanem, [email protected], 609 457 5663
No Accountability in Breonna Taylor Case Emboldens Racist Policing
In response to the grand jury indictment decision in the police killing of Breonna Taylor in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment in March, Community Change President Dorian Warren and Community Change Action President Lorella Praeli issued the following statement:
“Breonna Taylor was a victim of the racist and violent over-policing that plagues our system and needlessly endangers our Black and Brown communities. The criminal legal system in Kentucky has shown the world that they do not value Black and Brown lives.
We are once again disappointed to see the lack of accountability when officers kill Black people. Instead of charging all of the officers involved in Ms. Taylor’s murder, they charged just one officer with a class-D felony for shooting in the apartment building. This is nothing more than a slap on the wrist for the officer while the others go free. Instead of showing that Black Lives Matter, the Attorney General gave cover to police officers who murdered a Black woman while she slept in her bed. It’s an insult to her family and there is no excuse for it. Ms. Taylor should be alive today. This decision continues a dangerous, long-standing precedent in the United States that has emboldened racist and violent policing, as well as violence from white vigilante groups.
We must end the criminalization of Blackness in this country. Community Change and Community Change Action will continue to demand justice for Black Lives, an overhaul of policing in our country, and the diversion of funds from a police state and into a caring economy that makes us all safe and free.”
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Community Change is a national social justice organization committed to building power for low-income communities, especially communities of color.
Community Change Action is a national social justice organization committed to building power for low-income communities, especially communities of color, through political engagement.