This Week in Human Rights News

One year since Breonna Taylor’s murder

Please note that this story contains mentions of police violence and murder.

A year ago, on March 23rd 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician was shot and killed in her bed by Louisville police during a botched raid of her apartment.
Breonna’s death, along with the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, sparked huge protests against police brutality and racism across the US, and quickly spread internationally.

A year on, several protests and marches were organised in cities across the US, including Atlanta and New York, on the anniversary of Breonna’s death, many of whom were chanting ‘No justice, No peace’.

Only one the officers involved in the raid, Brett Hankison, has been charged - and only for endangering her neighbours by ‘blindly’ firing into adjacent apartments.
Hankison was first fired in June 2020 for having shown “an extreme indifference to the value of human life”.
Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes were fired, but Jonathan Mattingly continues to serve in the Metro Police Department.
Police officers entered Breonna’s apartment on a drug raid with a no-knock warrant - which have now been banned in Louisville.

Fearing intruders were entering his home, Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker fired one shot which hit Jonathan Mattingly.
The officers proceeded to fire 32 shots - 5 of which hit Breonna.
An ambulance on standby outside the apartment was told to leave an hour before the raid - counter to standard practice. It was later called back and struggled to render aid to Mattingly, while Breonna was not given any medical attention.

Kenneth Walker, was then charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but charges were later dropped in May 2020.
Mattingly sued Walker for assault and battery, claiming he should be entitled to damages for medical treatment, trauma, physical pain and mental anguish he experienced.
There were many glaring issues with this case; the lack of body cam footage, the incident report listed Breonna’s injuries as “none”, and the suspect that the police was after was after had already been located prior to the raid.

Breonna’s death also brought into focus an overlooked group of people fatally shot by police - women, particularly Black women.
Since 2015, police have fatally shot nearly 250 women, 89 of them were killed in homes or residences.

The #SayHerName campaign was launched to bring increased awareness to Black women killed by police in the United States.
Kimberlé Crenshaw, executive director of the African American Policy Forum, says that Black women are often left out of the public narrative about the use of force by police against Black people because they account for a much smaller number.