Breonna Taylor case : Grand jury proceedings a "sham"!
In 2015, criminologist Brian Schaefer accompanied police on 73 raids in the city of Louisville, Kentucky. Attached to this post is his Ph.D thesis based on observations garnered from those ride-alongs.
https://www.valorforblue.org/Documents/Knockingonthedoor-policedecisionpointsinexecutingsearch.pdf
A key passage is this:
"Of the 73 search warrant entries observed, every entry involved using a ram to break the door down. Further, the detectives announce their presence and purpose in conjunction with the first hit on the door. A detective explained, “As long as we announce our presence, we are good"
In the case of Breonna Taylor, the warrant was a no-knock warrant and was issued illegally. Of the 12 neighbors interviewed, initially all twelve indicated that they never heard an announcement by the police. It was only in a subsequent interview that 1 of the 12 changed his mind and decided that he heard the police announce themselves. The other 11 continue to maintain that they heard nothing until the barrage of gunfire that killed Breonna.
This warrant was served at 20 minutes before 1am, when most people are asleep. There is absolutely no evidence to indicate that the officers left enough time between knocking and smashing in the door for a sleeping person to have a chance to get their act together and get to the door. There is no evidence that they identified themselves as the police in a way that could be heard by the occupants of the apartment, and the officers were in plain clothes, not easily identifiable police uniforms.
Breonna Taylor was murdered, and today's miscarriage of justice is a plain statement from the government of Louisville that police can murder Americans at will... and there's nothing we can do about it.
A woman’s life can still be stolen from her under the color of law. Laws may have changed in form, but not in meaning, not in their effects.
Justice for Breonna Taylor, and for so many others.