A Kentucky police chief has determined that a former police officer who fired 10 shots into the home of emergency room technician Breonna Taylor, ultimately killing her, "displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life." Brett Hankison was officially fired Tuesday after Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder made public his intent to fire the officer Friday, according to a termination letter from the Louisville Metro Police Department. Hankison was serving a no-knock warrant when he “blindly” fired into Taylor’s apartment with such disregard that some of the rounds went into a neighboring apartment unit, “endangering” three people, Schroeder said in the letter.
"I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” he added. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion. You have never been trained by the Louisville Metro Police Department to use deadly force in this fashion. Your actions have brought discredit upon yourself and the Department."
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Taylor, 26, was sleeping when officers, including Sgt. John Mattingly and Det. Myles Cosgrove, smashed in her door after midnight and shot her at least eight times. Hankison, who had just been disciplined for reckless conduct in January, wasn’t even cognizant of the direction he was firing in, Schroeder said in the termination letter addressed to Hankison. "Based on my review, these are extreme violations of our policies," the chief said.
The fired cop has the opportunity to appeal his termination to the Police Merit Board in writing within 10 days of his termination, according to the chief’s letter. Taylor’s death has prompted the Louisville City Council to ban no-knock warrants, but it has not led to any criminal charges.
Ben Crump, an attorney for Taylor’s family, has repeatedly called for all officers involved to be not only terminated but criminally charged. His list of those involved includes Joshua Jaynes, the officer who sought the no-knock warrant. Jaynes was reassigned, the Courier-Journal reported.
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt said in a tweet Wednesday there have been no arrests in Taylor’s case because “we are allowing politicians to feign support for ‘justice’ without committing them to ACCOUNTABILITY!” He pushed Congress for legislation to increase liability in cases involving police brutality and supported Senate Democrats in shooting down a toothless bill Republicans tried unsuccessfully to get passed in the Senate.
Merritt’s opposition to the bill proposed by the only Black Republican senator, Tim Scott, revolves around language providing officers qualified immunity. The protection is “a judicially created doctrine shielding public officials who are performing discretionary functions from civil liability,” according to Congress.
Merritt said without stripping qualified immunity, Scott’s bill is a “Trojan horse.” the attorney tweeted Wednesday that “[t]he victim’ families spoke to @TimScottSC directly about this bill. It cannot go forward without ending #QualifiedImmunity and revising #Sect242 to provide criminal/civil accountability.”
Democrat Mazie Hirono called Scott's bill “a half-assed bill that doesn't do what we should be doing, which is doing honest police reform," and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted Wednesday that it’s “disappointing that Senate GOP has ignored the voices of hundreds of thousands peacefully calling out for justice.”
“Their proposal mimics the words of real reform but takes no action & makes no difference,” she said. “It is unworthy of support.”
Pelosi is instead pushing the House's Justice in Policing Act, which would:
1) establish a national standard for the operation of police departments; 2) mandate data collection on police encounters; 3) reprogram existing funds to invest in transformative community-based policing programs; and 4) streamline federal law to prosecute excessive force and establish independent prosecutors for police investigations.
Sen. Kamala Harris has voiced support for the bill in a call for “real reform” following numerous deaths at the hands of current or former police officers allegedly including that of Taylor, George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ahmaud Arbery in South Georgia, and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta.
“The Republican bill has been thrown out to give lip service to an issue with nothing substantial in it that would actually save or would have saved any of those lives,” Harris said.
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