From the President
September 24, 2020: Statement on the Breonna Taylor Grand Jury Verdict
Posted on December 11, 2023 at 12:00 AM
“INJUSTICE IS NOT ALWAYS ASSOCIATED WITH ACTION.
IT IS IN AN INACTION.” Marcus Aurelius
Armed citizens and trigger-happy law enforcement officers—a recipe for violence especially when racism is added to this vitriolic mix.
A frontline worker is shot five times in her own apartment by cops during a supposed drug heist. They break down her front door with a battering ram, her alarmed boyfriend shoots blindly at what he imagines are burglars. The officers start shooting. She gets five bullets in her body. She dies. She is Black. The three killers are White cops. There is a Grand Jury. The Attorney General of Louisville Kentucky announces the verdict. They absolve the cops—charging only one of them for shooting into neighboring apartments. Not for killing her.
September 23, 2020 will be remembered as the day justice was delayed. And denied. The systemic injustice in our law enforcement system allows racial discrimination to be practiced with impunity. More than six months after emergency medical worker, Breonna Taylor, was shot dead by police in her Louisville home, a grand jury charged not a single officer for their role in Taylor’s death. Former officer Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment and two other officers who opened fire were let off scot-free.
The result is predictable. After four months of nationwide protests against police brutality and racial targeting, citizens are back on the streets of America today. There are major protests across the nation. Did we expect a different result? How and when will this end? We are living in a world that is exploding around us. Justice and sanity are elusive concepts. We need to rein cops in. We need common-sense gun laws. We need judges who are interested in meting out justice, not pushing a partisan agenda. We can get all that if we vote. We can bring in lawmakers who will not be beholden to vested interests, lawmakers who will be on the side of the people and the law. There are less than 40 days to change our destiny. WE MUST VOTE!
“The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so.” Lois McMaster Bujold
Nuchhi Currier
President, Woman’s National Democratic Club