News broke today that four LMPD officers had caught federal charges for Breonna Taylor's death. Coming nearly two and a half years after her death it seems a bit overdue.
Late is better than never I suppose but it still sticks in your craw that it took so long. With state and local officials seemingly doing their utmost to protect the officers, the FBI's investigation was the only remaining chance of seeing them held accountable.
Only one of the officers charged, Brett Hankison, actually fired shots into Breonna Taylor's apartment. The other three are charged with lying to obtain the search warrant for her apartment and then lying to investigators about that. Apparently two of them later met in a garage to coordinate their cover story. Sounds about right for LMPD.
Local media had reported on the issues with the warrant shortly after protests started here in May of 2020, and one was fired for it at the end of 2020. Kind of makes you wonder what took the FBI so long.
Charges are not the same thing as convictions so it remains to be seen whether anyone will ultimately be held accountable for what happened on March 13, 2020. Still, this is the first time in a long while that it seems like there is any chance of that happening, so I count it as promising. Until that comes to pass, SAY HER NAME!
Photos are in chronological order, one from each of the first five days of protests I attended, May 29, 2020 through June 2, 2020. Last photo is an extra from June 2nd.