Everyone is aware of the tragic death of Breonna Taylor and its surrounding circumstances. But many are calling for murder charges against the police officers who did the shooting, and are calling the event evidence of systemic racism. Both positions are ridiculously off base.
The grand jury did not charge any officers with the killing of Ms. Breonna Taylor in her home. The mainstream media would have you believe that this means that the grand jury was derelict in its duties. This skewed, biased view from the media is ignorant of the facts. The evidence clearly delineated that no laws were broken in connection with Ms Taylor’s shooting – the officers were acting within the legal confines of a warrant. The blame for this horrible outcome may well have been that the warrant was issued too easily and with terms that might create an unnecessarily dangerous situation. In fact, none of the actions by the police officers could be counted as homicide or murder nor could they be chalked up to systematic racism. Don’t let the media blind your vision as to where the real injustice is occurring: police warrants.
As Americans who have agreed to live within a republican system of justice, we have no right to contest the grand jury’s decision. However, we do have every right to contest the laws that created this situation. Laws can be flawed and as thoughtful citizens of a republic we have every right to go through the proper channels and request a change of law where we see fit. If the problem is a too aggressive approach by law enforcement, maybe No-Knock warrants should not be allowable, or at least much more restricted. The way to fix the problems that gave rise to the Taylor tragedy is not societal upheaval over racial injustice, as the grand jury found no clear racial motivation involved in the case. No – the answer is criminal law reform, specifically in relation to laws surrounding warrants.
The claim of systemic racism also has no basis. The police entered the home due to a narcotics case with a legally valid warrant to do what was necessary within the home to complete their objectives. The wrongdoing in this case is rather coming from why policemen are busting in in the middle of the night – who gave the order to do that, why is that allowed, and so many other questions that the media should be focusing on. If anyone is really looking to see where the problem was in the Taylor case, it was not the policemen executing a warrant nor the boyfriend who was shooting back in self-defense. Nothing in all this reflects anything about race. The media and demonstrators were charging racism long before the details of the case were known. That alone is clear evidence of the dishonesty of those claiming racism was the cause.
Criminal law reform is where the focus must be if we are actually going to create a better America. Someone’s head should roll. Not the policemen but those who set the dominos in motion. Maybe it’s not a particular person that needs correction but a whole system created by a host of people. The system is the problem. Let’s focus on fixing that.