If someone busts into your house, what are you going to do?
Most of us would answer that we have guns for just such an occasion and we’d use them. That’s a sane, rational reaction that even most anti-gunners would have to quietly nod their heads upon hearing.
That’s what Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend did. The problem was that it was the police executing a no-knock raid. When the dust settled, Breonna Taylor was dead and a lot of people wanted answers. More than that, they wanted justice and previous court cases didn’t seem to yield any.
A former Kentucky police officer was found guilty on Friday of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights during a March 2020 police raid that killed her.
A jury returned the verdict late Friday in the trial of former Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison after issuing a partial verdict that acquitted him on a separate count of violating the rights of Taylor’s neighbors. It is the second federal trial Hankison has faced, with the jury hearing testimony from over a dozen witnesses over the last two weeks.
Federal prosecutors had hoped to convince the jury that Hankison egregiously violated the police department’s policy and that he placed several people inside the apartment complex at risk.
But Hankison’s defense asserted the former detective’s actions were justified based on his belief at the time that he was saving the lives of fellow officers. During closing arguments, his attorneys also introduced an 11th-hour defense that called into question whether Taylor was still alive when Hankison fired his rounds, which proved to be a sticking point for the jurors during deliberations.
Despite the defense, the jury — made up of five white men, one Black man and six white women — returned the guilty verdict after three days of deliberations.
Following the verdict, members of Taylor’s family collapsed into tears and embraced immediately after they left the courtroom. Prosecutors asked that Hankison immediately be taken into custody, but the judge denied their request.
The killing of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, sparked months of demonstrations, prompted legislation across the country and led to a $12 million civil settlement with her family.
It should be remembered that the police weren’t actually looking for Breonna or her boyfriend. They were looking for her ex-boyfriend, who they said they believed was somehow receiving drugs at Breonna’s house. However, the information was absolute BS. The evidence used for probable cause was fabricated, and as a result, Taylor was killed.
So we had faulty evidence leading to a no-knock raid in the dark of night which means police just busted in while people had no reason to believe they’d been investigated for anything because they weren’t breaking the law, and an innocent person got killed.
Folks, this is my nightmare scenario.
As bad as a home invasion might be, I could at least open fire and rest easier knowing bad men intended to do bad things to me and my family. The idea of the police crashing down the door in the middle of the night, me fighting back, and someone being killed is a different matter entirely. I might be completely justified–and some courts haven’t been that understanding, for the record–but it’s still not the same.
If my wife or kids are the ones killed, though…
The fact that there’s finally been some justice–and a push to either end or restrict no-knock raids in many places–is the only good news we’ve seen in this whole situation.
