LFormer American police officer Brett Hankison was found guilty on Friday 1is November by federal justice, for his role in the death of Breonna Taylor, a young black woman who became an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement. The culprit will receive his sentence next March.
His acquittal by local justice in 2022, not for the death of Breonna Taylor but for related facts, had revived the feeling of injustice in anti-racist circles and within the black community of the city.
An innocent 26-year-old victim
In March 2020, three Louisville police officers broke into the home of Breonna Taylor, 26, in the middle of the night as part of an investigation into drug trafficking targeting her former boyfriend.
His new companion believed they were burglars and fired a shot from a legally owned weapon. The police returned fire and Breonna Taylor was shot several times.
Her death had not attracted much attention until the death of George Floyd, suffocated by a white police officer in May 2020. Breonna Taylor’s name was then chanted in all the anti-racist demonstrations of the summer. Despite the anger, local prosecutors had only charged one of the three police officers as of September 2020.
Police criticized for illegal practices
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Kangaroo of the day
Answer
After Brett Hankison’s conviction on Friday, two other police officers remain charged by federal justice.
The Louisville police repeatedly resort to excessive use of force and other illegal, discriminatory, even racist practices, a resounding federal investigation concluded in March 2023. The Ministry of Justice denounced “aggressive police practices”, “implemented selectively, in particular against black people”.
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