Breonna Taylor: Grand Jury

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am truly not understanding how this is a racist incident on behalf of the cops. If they shot through a wall in response to being shot at and unfortunately hit someone, that is an awful tragedy this woman lost her life but I don't see how it's racist. Someone please enlighten me.

If I flip a coin once and it comes up heads, is that evidence the coin is weighted? No. If I flip it twice and it comes up heads both times, is that evidence the coin is weighted? Of course not, that happens all the time in coin flipping trials.

If I flip the coin 50 times and it come up heads 40 times, would you start to question the coin?

In many of these cases, there is some alternative explanation that doesn’t involve racism. But when you take the pattern together as a whole, it’s hard to deny that there’s something off about how police treat Black people as compared to white people.

[Anonymous]

The system worked as it should, here. There wasn't sufficient evidence that any of the actions against Breona Taylor rose to a criminal act. And it's a fundamental precept of American criminal law, that it's better to let 10 guilty men go than imprison one innocent man.

The problem is larger than this particular case. The reform needs to be made on the front end to increase suspect and bystander safety. I know this decision to not prosecute hurts emotionally, but this is not where the fight needs to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am truly not understanding how this is a racist incident on behalf of the cops. If they shot through a wall in response to being shot at and unfortunately hit someone, that is an awful tragedy this woman lost her life but I don't see how it's racist. Someone please enlighten me.

If I flip a coin once and it comes up heads, is that evidence the coin is weighted? No. If I flip it twice and it comes up heads both times, is that evidence the coin is weighted? Of course not, that happens all the time in coin flipping trials.

If I flip the coin 50 times and it come up heads 40 times, would you start to question the coin?

In many of these cases, there is some alternative explanation that doesn’t involve racism. But when you take the pattern together as a whole, it’s hard to deny that there’s something off about how police treat Black people as compared to white people.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The system worked as it should, here. There wasn't sufficient evidence that any of the actions against Breona Taylor rose to a criminal act. And it's a fundamental precept of American criminal law, that it's better to let 10 guilty men go than imprison one innocent man.

The problem is larger than this particular case. The reform needs to be made on the front end to increase suspect and bystander safety. I know this decision to not prosecute hurts emotionally, but this is not where the fight needs to be.

Except for all the innocent people we imprison and even execute on the word of cops who were just so certain they were guilty, they plant evidence and force fake confessions. You know that lovely idea only applies to white, wealthy, and powerful people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The system worked as it should, here. There wasn't sufficient evidence that any of the actions against Breona Taylor rose to a criminal act. And it's a fundamental precept of American criminal law, that it's better to let 10 guilty men go than imprison one innocent man.

The problem is larger than this particular case. The reform needs to be made on the front end to increase suspect and bystander safety. I know this decision to not prosecute hurts emotionally, but this is not where the fight needs to be.

Except for all the innocent people we imprison and even execute on the word of cops who were just so certain they were guilty, they plant evidence and force fake confessions. You know that lovely idea only applies to white, wealthy, and powerful people.

So true. If you doubt it go talk to a former Prosecuting attorney that has since retired or works for the defense now. They will have lots of stories about biased and unscrupulous cops and DAs. Now I do agree that fixing the up front process is the root cause resolution, but in the meantime let’s treat the symptoms too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The system worked as it should, here. There wasn't sufficient evidence that any of the actions against Breona Taylor rose to a criminal act. And it's a fundamental precept of American criminal law, that it's better to let 10 guilty men go than imprison one innocent man.

The problem is larger than this particular case. The reform needs to be made on the front end to increase suspect and bystander safety. I know this decision to not prosecute hurts emotionally, but this is not where the fight needs to be.

Welcome douchey!

The system worked as it should, here

Hmmm... an intriguing analysis.

There wasn't sufficient evidence that any of the actions against Breona Taylor rose to a criminal act.

Except her bleeding-out-soon-to-be-dead body.

And it's a fundamental precept of American criminal law, that it's better to let 10 guilty men go than imprison one innocent man.

And it's a fundamental precept of Western civics that it's better for elected leaders to commit to a peaceful transfer of power in the wake of an election, but... um... never mind.

[Anonymous]

I am truly not understanding how this is a racist incident on behalf of the cops. If they shot through a wall in response to being shot at and unfortunately hit someone, that is an awful tragedy this woman lost her life but I don't see how it's racist. Someone please enlighten me.

They didn't need to break into her home. They could've nabbed the boyfriend on the street, but then they wouldn't get to do their exciting "raid" and high-five each other afterwards. They felt comfortable doing their raid because the target(s) were lower-income black people. I'm white and f-ing DETEST political correctness, but get real, jackass.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:If Breonna Taylor were white, charges would've filed in her death. Black or white, we all know that. That's the crux of the issue.

I would like to add this footnote:

The police had been investigating two men who they believed were selling drugs out of a house that was far from Ms. Taylor’s home.
But a judge signed a warrant allowing the police to search Breonna's residence because the police believed that one of the men had used her apartment to receive packages.
Breonna had been dating that man on and off for several years but had recently severed ties with him.

SO...

If the two guys that the cops were investigating were white, they never even would have sought a no-knock warrant to begin with.
Let that soak in for a second.

Um, what?

Because white guys don’t deal drugs? They do.

Or, because you think the judge has a different approach to warrants for white drug dealers? Nonsense.

Research shows that basically every phase of the American criminal justice system (who is arrested, who is charged, what they're charged with, who's released pre-trial, who's convicted, what sentences they receive), why would issuing warrants be any different? Here's a recent study if you're unfamiliar with the evidence (http://cjpp.law.harvard.edu/assets/Massachusetts-Racial-Disparity-Report-FINAL.pdf)

I’m actually very familiar with the data.

But I’m also not blind to the fact that if police are confronted by an armed man firing at them when executing a warrant, the police will return fire.

Do you really think this would have been different with white people? That’s nuts.

It would have been the same response, race really wasn't a factor. Except with the media and those manufacturing an agenda.

I don't agree with those warrants and using a battering ram through the front door. They should wait till the suspect leaves the home to do the arrest. Hopefully those tactics will change. However, I do believe they announced themselves loudly as proclaimed, and this guy shot knowing he was shooting at cops. Once he shot the guy in the leg they were justified. In this particular case I don't think any cops should go to jail.

I feel like this all could have been avoided if handled differently. But my husband reminded me of the time the rental house on our street was raided at 4am by SWAT with what looked like armored vehicles and dozens of police in special uniforms with big guns drawn.

We got a robocall on our home phone (dating myself here...probably 2003 or 2004) directing us to stay inside away from windows due to a police incident on our street. We immediately looked outside and saw the police assembling before ramming down the door.

It was a rental with young people. The primary renters were white Brazilians. They were obviously dealing drugs out of the house. A few weeks prior to the raid, I was playing in the front yard with my toddler and chatting with an elderly neighbor who stopped by during her walk when two young guys who had parked farther down the street approached the house. I noticed one guy adjusting his waist and saw a gun. That confirmed our suspicions.

They took everyone out of the house in handcuffs. No shots fired. They left a young mom and toddler behind.

The whole scene was shocking. And I suppose it could have gone very differently if someone pulled a gun.

This was MoCo btw. 20906.

A Maryland man who was shot and killed by police was armed with a rifle and ignored commands to show his hands and get on the ground when officers entered his home, police said Tuesday.

The Montgomery County Police Department’s statement on an officer’s fatal shooting of 21-year-old Duncan Socrates Lemp contradicts an eyewitness account cited by an attorney for Lemp’s family. The eyewitness said Lemp was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from outside his house in Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington D.C., the family’s attorney, Rene Sandler, said last Friday.

Police disputed that account. The department says tactical unit officers who entered Lemp’s home around 4:30 a.m. last Thursday to serve a search warrant announced themselves as police and gave Lemp “multiple orders” to show his hands and comply with commands to get on the ground.


https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2020/03/police-man-shot-by-officer-had-rifle-ignored-commands/

I'd never heard about this. It just goes to show how much more young Black lives matter in 2020 than young white ones. The police in Fairfax shot John Geer, another white guy, in 2013 and practically no one knew about it or protested at all.

[Anonymous]

^ ^
For sure, white people get a really raw deal. Justice for my people!

I'm white (and raw.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am truly not understanding how this is a racist incident on behalf of the cops. If they shot through a wall in response to being shot at and unfortunately hit someone, that is an awful tragedy this woman lost her life but I don't see how it's racist. Someone please enlighten me.

It is racist because any negative action on person of color is always presumed by them to be because of their color.

This incident is just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Murkey and not as well-defined as Ahmed Aubrey or George Floyd. But after so.many.innocent.people.died people just can’t take it anymore. If your every day thought is “I can’t even be safe in my own home” life is really rough. So Breonna Taylor, shot in her apartment because her boyfriend didn’t hear the police, Ahmed Aubrey, killed for being black and autistic waiting for the library to open, George Floyd, killed for being a petty criminal, the 12 yo kid a few years ago, killed for playing in the park with a toy gun. It just goes on and on and then people break. Is the Breonna Taylor case cut and dried racism? Murky. But is it tinder to community anger, sure.

I agree with this, but it doesn't help the cause to protest the murky cases. Protest the clear cut ones like Floyd, Aubrey, McClain, Garner...there are many of them! Breonna Taylor's killing was a tragedy but not the same as those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

yep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'd never heard about this. It just goes to show how much more young Black lives matter in 2020 than young white ones. The police in Fairfax shot John Geer, another white guy, in 2013 and practically no one knew about it or protested at all.

Please pull out the stats from the last 5 years of white people, black people killed by police. Or go back to school. One antidote is not stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'd never heard about this. It just goes to show how much more young Black lives matter in 2020 than young white ones. The police in Fairfax shot John Geer, another white guy, in 2013 and practically no one knew about it or protested at all.

Please pull out the stats from the last 5 years of white people, black people killed by police. Or go back to school. One antidote is not stats.

Why don’t we care about every black person killed? I don’t get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'd never heard about this. It just goes to show how much more young Black lives matter in 2020 than young white ones. The police in Fairfax shot John Geer, another white guy, in 2013 and practically no one knew about it or protested at all.

Please pull out the stats from the last 5 years of white people, black people killed by police. Or go back to school. One antidote is not stats.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

You should be careful before saying dumb sh-t based on media lies vs. FACTS. The truth is being hidden from you. And its anecdote you buffoon, further proving that you should spend more time reading and less time talking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'd never heard about this. It just goes to show how much more young Black lives matter in 2020 than young white ones. The police in Fairfax shot John Geer, another white guy, in 2013 and practically no one knew about it or protested at all.

Please pull out the stats from the last 5 years of white people, black people killed by police. Or go back to school. One antidote is not stats.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

You should be careful before saying dumb sh-t based on media lies vs. FACTS. The truth is being hidden from you. And its anecdote you buffoon, further proving that you should spend more time reading and less time talking.

More whites killed overall but more blacks as percentage of population basically. Either way, ALL of it needs to stop. Period. Would be nice to hear someone say that instead of picking sides.