“…the use of force…was justified….This justification bars us from pursuing criminal charges in Ms. Breonna Taylor’s death” — Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron
1. On Wednesday, a Jefferson County grand jury indicted former LMPD detective Brett Hankison on three charges of wanton endangerment, for bullets he fired that entered an apartment adjacent to Breonna Taylor’s. As protesters made their way down Bardstown Road in the Highlands, I noticed a sign with a message that has become a common refrain: “The apartment walls got more justice.”
2. Hankison, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and detective Myles Cosgrove were the three officers who entered Taylor’s apartment shortly after midnight on March 13 while executing a controversial and since-banned no-knock warrant, taking out the door with a battering ram. LMPD has said the officers returned fire after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot a single bullet that hit Mattingly in the femoral artery in his thigh; Walker has said he didn’t hear the officers announce themselves and feared an intruder. Cameron, during his press conference, said, “This all took place in a matter of seconds. In total, six bullets struck Ms. Taylor. Medical evidence obtained by our team indicates that only one shot was fatal.” The F.B.I. is still investigating the obtainment of the search warrant.
I mentioned this C-J column from Joe Gerth in a newsletter several weeks ago, and I’ve thought about it a lot since: “While it’s hard to blame Walker for shooting at police when they entered the apartment, it’s equally difficult for any prosecutor to obtain indictments against police officers who killed someone when they were fired on first. It just is.
“So, if that’s the case, how do we move forward?”
3.Louisville Urban League president and CEO Sadiqa Reynolds spoke on Democracy Now! Thursday morning. “The lack of indictments in the grand jury process is an indictment on the system itself,” she said.
“I think it’s important for us to say what was accomplished in these protests. It was more than just whether or not Daniel Cameron decided to indict these officers. We have to talk about the fact that the police chief was exited, that there was one officer that was indicted, that now we have mandatory body cameras here in Louisville, Kentucky, when there’s a search warrant issued, that we’ve banned no-knocks in this city, so no more no-knock warrants, the creation of a civilian review board in order to create an office of inspector general to oversee the police department — this is a review board that I am currently on and helping to create. Now in writing…our police officers have a responsibility to intervene if they see an officer engaged in misconduct.
“If this case had not made the national news, please believe me, Kenneth Walker would have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It is because of the protests in the street that this case changed. We changed everything.”
4. On Tuesday, Mattingly sent a letter to his LMPD colleagues, saying he knew “we did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night,” adding that officers, “DO NOT DESERVE to be in this position. The position that allows thugs to get in your face and yell, curse and degrade you. Throw bricks, bottles and urine on you and expect you to do nothing.”
On WAVE, Ricky Jones, director of the Pan-African Studies Department at U of L, said, “That honesty is simultaneously refreshing and terrifying that they see a good percentage of the people who they patrol, as well as people who are exercising their rights to gather and protest when they feel that someone has been mistreated and wrongfully killed in this community, as thugs.
“The question is, what percentage of LMPD is he speaking for?”
5. District 18 Metro Councilwoman Marilyn Parker is hosting a free paper-shredding event tonight at U of L’s Shelby Campus. Can all of 2020 fit inside a paper shredder?
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And now, the “Five. Oh! Too…” version of an eye exam:
Can’t read it? Maybe get your eyes checked.
A little something from the LouMag archive.
In 2018, managing editor Mary Chellis Nelson interviewed State Rep. Attica Scott, the only Black woman in the Kentucky legislature, who last night was arrested with at least two dozen protesters, including her daughter, Ashanti. Scott has advocated for the statewide passage of Breonna’s Law, which banned no-knock warrants in Louisville earlier this summer.
At the time of the interview, Scott had recently started as state representative. “I’m a minority of a minority of a minority,” Scott said. “One, I’m the only woman of color, period, in the legislature. Two, I’m part of a caucus of black people who are the superminority in the legislature. And third, now I’m part of a political party that’s the superminority in the legislature.”
Mary asked Scott about holding office while raising two children. “I…am the kind of mom that’s always had my kids involved in whatever I’m doing because one of the lessons I learned from the civil rights movement is that a lot of kids resented that movement because they weren’t with their parents when they went away to whatever action or activity they were doing. My kids were always there with me. I’ve got pictures of my kids holding bullhorns and leading chants and at protests when they were younger, long before I ever ran for office. It just makes me feel empowered for them to be able to speak from an educated perspective about why their mom is running for office and these are the issues that she’s concerned about. I encourage moms all the time: If you’re thinking about running for office, do it and engage your kids.”
I dunno, man. I wasn’t sure how to end the newsletter this week, then remembered that a dorky text thread with my coworkers gave me a laugh I didn’t know I needed.
Dylon Jones, senior editor: You guys…
If you hit shift + option + hyphen on Mac, you make an em dash!
🤯
Mary Chellis Nelson, managing editor: I didn’t know there were other ways? That’s the only way I know
DJ: You’ve been holding out on this info! 😂. I just use the hyphen + hyphen + enter shortcut in Word, but that doesn’t work in other programs
MCN: Well what’s interesting is since we switched to Office I can still do an em dash in an email, but the recipient sees it as a bullet point 🤷♀️
I thought hyphen hyphen enter was the shorter dash and not the em dash? That one between en and em dash
God this is so nerdy but I love it
DJ: OMG, have all of my “em” dashes been lies?!
OK I’m looking and I think they’re both em dashes. But I’m second guessing and wondering if one is like a centimeter shorter 😅
Me: Lemme know if we need to run a thousand corrections
Josh Moss
editor, Louisville Magazine
jmoss@loumag.com