Demonstrators on Saturday demanded justice and police reforms as they marched on the one-year anniversary of the death of Breonna Taylor, a young black woman mistakenly shot and killed by officers during a raid of her apartment.
“We got two different Americas. We got one for black Americans and one for white Americans,” Benjamin Crump, an attorney representing Taylor’s family, told the crowd of hundreds in Louisville, Kentucky. “We got to get justice for all our people in America.”
The deaths of Taylor and George Floyd, a black man who died under the knee of a policeman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, became a focus of a wave of protests last year against police abuses and racism in the US.
Photo: Reuters
On Saturday, Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, led hundreds marching behind a large purple banner with an illustration of Taylor’s face, chanting: “No justice, no peace.”
months after the killing — in which police shot Taylor while looking for a former friend of hers — only one of three police officers has been charged, and only for endangering Taylor’s neighbors by firing wildly.
The failure to press homicide charges — a decision denounced as “outrageous” by Taylor’s family — sparked sporadic violence in Louisville in September last year.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday declared his support for reforms.
“Breonna Taylor’s death was a tragedy, a blow to her family, her community, and America,” he wrote on Twitter. “As we continue to mourn her, we must press ahead to pass meaningful police reform in Congress. I remain committed to signing a landmark reform bill into law.”
Taylor’s family and friends are looking to the results of a federal probe, with the FBI saying that its work was moving forward.
“Even though the COVID pandemic presented several unexpected obstacles, FBI Louisville has made significant progress in the investigation,” the field office in that city said in a statement.
The bureau remained “steadfast in its commitment to bringing this investigation to its appropriate conclusion,” the statement said.
Two of the officers involved were fired in December last year.
Linda Sarsour, cofounder of the Until Freedom social justice organization, said the officers need to be held accountable.
“Right now, the only thing that has happened is that the police officers have been fired from the police department, that is a human resources issue. We need justice,” she said.
To settle a civil suit, Louisville authorities agreed to pay the Taylor family US$12 million and initiate police reforms.
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