The Department of Justice suggested a one-day prison sentence for Brett Hankinson, a former LMPD officer implicated in the Breonna Taylor case. Hankison fired his weapon recklessly into Taylor’s home at least 10 times.
The family of Taylor has expressed heartbreak over the DOJ’s statement, and others, including Metro Council member Shameka Parrish-Wright, the Urban League, and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s office, have released statements.
Parrish-Wright said in the opening of her statement, “One day in prison for a lifetime of moments Breonna Taylor’s family will never share with her is a devastating slap in the face. Brett Hankison was not acting alone the night Breonna was killed. His actions—and those of others—led not only to the loss of Breonna’s life, but to the permanent emotional and psychological harm inflicted on Kenneth Walker. Their civil and human rights were violated in the most intimate and terrifying way: in their own home.”
Greenberg said, “Former officer Brett Hankison was convicted of a serious federal crime. I believe his actions warrant a serious prison sentence.”
The Mayor also cited the work the community has done to move forward and heal from this event.
The Urban League’s statement included both local and national voices.
“This isn’t a sentencing recommendation; it’s a declaration by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice that it has no intention of protecting Americans from civil rights violations by law enforcement,” National Urban League President & CEO Marc H. Morial said in the release. “It is an act of hostility against Breonna Taylor’s memory and against the Constitution itself.”
Louisville Urban League President Lyndon Pryor said, “Despite executive orders to unleash police and increase aggressive law enforcement, we do not live in an authoritarian society where agents of the state are free to kidnap, kill, and terrorize with impunity.”
All of these statements are correct in their assessments of this insult by the DOJ.
All of the Trump administration’s actions in the six months that Americans have had to suffer through have been solely to settle Trump’s petty grudges and cause hurt to those he doesn’t like. Little of these actions have anything to do with governance or, in this case, justice.
Of course, it is insane to suggest a one-day sentence and to consider time served, which means Hankison would serve no time behind bars.
It underscores the fact that America, no matter how we try to rationalize it, is built on oppression and only sees itself as working when it steps on the backs of the people who are the foundation of its workforce and food supply. At this point, we need to simply acknowledge that it’s a kink.
It is completely unsustainable, and it is why increasingly America is seeing the decay of its cities and people.
Brett Hankison and all of the other criminals who murdered Breonna Taylor should serve life sentences. They should occupy the camps that Trump plans for immigrants.
Police consistently overreact in cases involving Black and Brown people. Ask almost any Black person you know about their interactions with cops. We’ve all had ones that have felt sketchy and dangerous.
Americans have to decide right now if they want to live in a police state or if they really want to live freely, and what freedom means. It can’t simply be freedom for one and not for all.
If you doubt that America is moving in that direction, I implore you to look at the definition of a police state and compare it to the actions of this administration, and the inactions of administrations past — on both sides. We have seen a slow erosion of the freedom we think we have.
Owning a gun isn’t freedom when you can’t use it against the people kidnapping citizens off the street and putting them in camps. The Second Amendment was made exactly for moments like these, and yet, we aren’t free to pursue that action, despite having the artillery.
You aren’t free when being sick means that your house, your cars, or any of your assets are at risk of being seized by the corporation to settle a bill. That’s not freedom.
We aren’t free when the schools where our children spend most of their days are housed in dilapidated buildings, with poor quality books (information censored because of an American aversion to the bad things in our history), a lack of supplies, a lack of food support for learning brains, etc. That isn’t freedom. It is the starvation of thinking in our nation.
Americans need to detach from their echo chambers and look at the totem of America and its inability to truly live according to its stated values.
The land of the free is an obese, yet anemic place. We are addicted, embattled, and enslaved to a system that treats us as disposable.
This suggestion for Hankison suggests that Taylor’s life is second to the life of a man who aided in her death. It is an absolute perversion of “justice.”
I’ll keep asking until maybe America answers. What version of America do you want?
It can’t be this. This isn’t good. If it isn’t safe for all, it isn’t safe for you. Period. Take that to heart.
Do you want to be free?
