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References

2019 NAB Marconi Radio Award Finalists Announced. (2018, July 18). Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.nab.org/documents/newsroom/pressRelease.asp?id=5073

Michael Barbaro, Journalist. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/brief/246115/michael-barbaro

The New York Times Wins Three 2020 Pulitzer Prizes, in International Reporting, Investigative Reporting and Commentary. (2020, May 21). Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.nytco.com/press/the-new-york-times-wins-three-2020-pulitzer-prizes-in-international-reporting-investigative-reporting-and-commentary/

On the Ground in Louisville. (2020, September 24). Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/podcasts/the-daily/breonna-taylor-police-officers-louisville.html?showTranscript=1

Packer, Z., & Cobb, J. (2020, September 27). The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor Decision. Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-empty-facts-of-the-breonna-taylor-decision

Prayias, G. (2020, September 24). The Breonna Taylor Narrative Is Based on Lies. Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/09/24/the-breonna-taylor-narrative-is-based-on-lies/

ZZ Packer. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://watson.brown.edu/people/fellows/packer

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Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron

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Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron

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Those seeking justice for Breonna Taylor's death were denied it on Wednesday, when a Kentucky grand jury refused to charge any of the officers who shot at her with murder or manslaughter. Taylor, a twenty-six-year-old E.M.T., had finished back-to-back shifts and was dozing off with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, when three Louisville Metro Police Department officers, who were dressed in plain clothes, knocked on her door and then broke it down with a battering ram. Her boyfriend shot in the direction of the threat-toward the door. The three policemen proceeded to empty more than thirty rounds into Taylor's apartment, killing her. The only indictment was for Brett Hankison, who, in firing his weapon without a clear target and into the adjacent apartments, was alleged to have acted in a manner that rose to "wanton endangerment." His actions were deemed to have fallen short of "wanton manslaughter," as none of his bullets were, according to Kentucky's attorney general, Daniel Cameron, the fatal one that ended Taylor's life.

There's a lot that is just god-awful wrong here, but let's talk about Cameron. During his press conference on Wednesday, he placed a great emphasis on "facts" as, of course, one would expect of an attorney general. But Cameron has his own interpretation of who can grasp the facts. After announcing the grand-jury decision, he stood at the podium and said, "There will be celebrities, influencers, and activists, who, having never lived in Kentucky, will try to tell us how to feel, suggesting they understand the facts of this case and that they know our community and the Commonwealth better than we do. But they don't."

I'm from Kentucky. I'm a Louisvillian. Yet my being from Louisville has no bearing whatsoever on whether I can "understand the facts of this case" any more than can Beyoncé, of Houston, Texas. Anyone who has read the history of the South-especially that of Reconstruction and Jim Crow-is familiar with this "us"-insiders-versus-"them"-outsiders language deployed by Cameron: it's the language of white-supremacist segregationists who demonized "outside agitators" and condemned any federal oversight or laws telling them how to act or who to be. According to segregationist thinking, the racist customs of the South were her own to determine. Cameron continued, "Let's not give into their attempts to influence our thinking or capture our emotions. At the end of the day, it is up to us. We live here together. We work here and raise our families here together."

This sounds like the Alabama- and North Georgia-reared Mitch McConnell speaking. Which is not to say that Cameron could not have constructed a segregationist modus operandi to fit his own goals and machinations, but it does make us question whom he means by "our" and "us" and "families." Does he think that Breonna Taylor's family doesn't live in Louisville? What about the activist Christopher 2X or the writer Hannah Drake? Or the president of the Louisville Urban League, Sadiqa Reynolds? Or the attorneys for the Breonna Taylor Family Estate, Lonita Baker and Sam Aguiar? Or the drafters of Breonna's Law, Keturah Herron and the Kentucky state representative Attica Scott? All of them are Louisvillians who work and raise their families in Kentucky. All of them already know what to think about Breonna Taylor, because they have pursued the facts of the case, the facts that Cameron has obscured with what the late historian Howard Zinn would call sins of omission.

Let's look at a few of Cameron's sins of omission. "We decided, while we would examine materials gathered by L.M.P.D's Public Integrity Unit, we would need to conduct our own independent investigation and start from scratch in the interest of thoroughness, fairness, and finding the truth," Cameron said, and then added, "There was no video or body-camera footage of the officers' attempted execution of a search warrant at Ms. Taylor's residence." One can't "find the truth" if one doesn't have all the facts. One cannot properly know the actions of Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly, and Myles Cosgrove-the three policemen who fired weapons in Taylor's apartment that night-if we don't have full access to the evidence that would prove certain facts. And we don't have all the facts because the body cameras that these officers were issued were either never worn, turned off, or buried. "Right now, the problem is, you've got different factions speculating on different things," Aguiar, one of the attorneys for Taylor's family, told me. "Whereas, if you could just watch it, you can draw your own conclusions."

The lack of body-camera footage isn't Cameron's fault, of course, but he is at fault for fetishizing "facts" when the means of providing the most objective facts appear to be missing. Cameron went on to say, "Video footage begins at the point that area patrol officers arrive at the location." This seems rather convenient for the officers. We can't see or hear when Mattingly was shot, nor by whom he was shot. We can't see whether the door was rammed first by the police or a shot came through the door before it was rammed. We can't see where Walker was standing, where Taylor was situated, nor when Hankison left the breezeway to go around the side of the apartment and shoot blindly, emptying rounds into Taylor's apartment from the patio. We can't see if the police forgot the knock-and-announce part of their "knock and announce" warrant. We cannot see-nor do I ever want to see-the death of a woman who'd only hours earlier been at a romantic dinner with her beau, discussing plans for getting more serious with the man who stood his ground and defended her.

More omission, from Cameron, again: "Evidence shows that officers both knocked and announced their presence at the apartment. The officers' statements about their announcement are corroborated by an independent witness who was near in a proximity to Apartment Four." As Rukmini Callimachi, of the Times, has reported, about twelve neighbors declared that they did not hear the police announce themselves. The single neighbor who claimed that he heard the police declare themselves did so only after being asked multiple times and replying in the negative. Finally, when questioned again, he answered yes. Cameron failed to explain that when the police are serving a warrant, the announcement is supposed to be so loud that everyone inside an apartment can hear. It is meant to be deafening.

Cameron said, "Kentucky law states that a person is guilty of wanton endangerment in the first degree when, under circumstances manifesting in extreme indifference to the value of human life, he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person." Cameron, here, was referring to the behavior and actions of Hankison, and yet, let's take "indifference to the value of human life" to its logical end with all the officers involved. Were they indifferent to the value of Breonna Taylor's life? They arrived at her door after midnight, bearing weapons that they were prepared to use. Did they run through an internal checklist of what could possibly go wrong with those weapons in the dark at a woman's house, a woman who might live with a lover, a sister, a child, a parent? If they had, they might think, that's a dangerous idea. And, upon further reflection, that's a dumb idea. And, upon yet further reflection for anyone with a soul, that's an inhumane idea.

Not once did they think about Taylor's sister Juniyah, who was away in San Diego that night but otherwise could have been in the next room-because the L.M.P.D. did not know she had a sister. And, since they didn't know she had a sister, they couldn't have known that her sister lived with her. None of these facts-who lived with Taylor, whom she planned to one day marry and have kids with, that she was an essential worker-seemed to matter. The L.M.P.D. was indifferent to her as a person. They considered her home a "soft target." What does that mean? The dictionary defines it as "a person or thing that is relatively unprotected or vulnerable, especially to military or terrorist attack." Hard targets are fortified, secure, and prepared to encounter a threat.

If this were a white woman, who lived over in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Hurstborne, would the police have decided to take out a warrant on her? If this was a white woman whose ex-boyfriend had dealt cocaine, would the L.M.P.D. have endangered her life by seeking to obtain a no-knock arrest warrant? When the Louisville Metro government arrived at a settlement of twelve million dollars for Breonna Taylor's family, it was not saying that this is the monetary value for Taylor's priceless, priceless life-nor even for her wrongful death. It was saying that that is how much it is willing to pay for the same kind of violence not to be visited upon a white Louisvillian. Indifference to life seems to matter when using a weapon, but not so much when using the much vaster powers of the state as a weapon.

Cameron again: "Our investigation showed-and the grand jury agreed-that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in the return of deadly fire after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker. Let me state that again. According to Kentucky law, the use of force by Mattingly and Cosgrave was justified to protect themselves. This justification bars us from pursuing criminal charges in Ms. Breonna Taylor's death." Return of deadly fire? A few words on that: Breonna. Taylor. Did. Not. Shoot. Anyone.

When Cameron was asked a question about the percentage of people of color who were on the team of investigators who presented to the grand jury, he responded, "Well, I'm Black, and I speak for the entire department. And I hope that will satisfy that question." No, it does not. Cameron hopes that the fact of his Blackness will serve as the final answer to whether this Black woman, Breonna Taylor, received justice. No, it won't. As long as there are two separate justice systems in this country, there is no justice.

Cameron said, "The truth is now before us. The facts have been examined and a grand jury comprised of our peers and fellow-citizens has made a decision." Yet, when he was asked, "Can you talk about the racial and gender makeup of the grand jury?," Cameron punted and evaded, saying, "I won't get into the specifics of the makeup of the grand jury." Why not? In a case that is all about how a racist system arrives at the door of an innocent woman and dispenses with her like collateral damage, one would hope Cameron would be eager to get into the specifics about who decides what justice looks for Breonna Taylor.

Perhaps Cameron's largest omission was his refusal to acknowledge the partiality of the judicial system in which he works. It's a system that can construct a fiction with facts. It can ghost on some facts, treating them as though they never existed, cherry-pick some, curate others, and flatten yet others. It can also mash two facts together, so that they seem like their opposite. Take this report from Kentucky WAVE 3 News, posted on March 13th: "Three LMPD officers were identified Friday, hours after being fired upon while trying to serve a search warrant. A man who was inside the home surrendered following the shootout with officers in the 300 block of Springfield Drive at about 12:30 a.m. Friday. When officers secured the home, they found a woman dead from the gunfire. She has not been identified."

This makes it seem as though the man-Kenneth Walker-was the target of the search warrant. "Fired upon" makes it seem as though the police themselves were withstanding the hail of gunfire, not the death-dealers of it. "Surrendered" makes it seem as though Walker was guilty; that he was forced to surrender-not that the L.M.P.D. had no idea who he was, and took him into custody and then pinned false charges on him. "Shootout" implies an even exchange of gunfire, not that one person fired a shot, then got blasted with more than thirty rounds in return. The "officers secured the home" makes it seem like the officers actually knew what the hell they were doing and were in control of the situation. They "found a woman dead from gunfire," as though they just waltzed from room to room, in their official capacity, and happened upon a dead woman-"a woman dead from gunfire." Yes. Their gunfire. Leave out that essential fact, and the unsuspecting reader is left believing that the woman's death must be at the hands of the man who "surrendered." And how is it that "she has not been identified"? Her name was on the warrant. Of course, she had been identified. They said as much to Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, after they sent her to the hospital for two hours, when the truth was her daughter was not at the hospital: Taylor lay in her home, bleeding to death, because the police neglected to seek out medical attention for the woman whom they shot. Why? Because they had messed up. Big time.

Yet had people not worked tirelessly to uncover the truth of what happened-the truth that had been buried underneath a morass of facts-Breonna Taylor might still be remembered as a suspect and some drug kingpin's moll, not a tireless essential worker whose goal in life was to help people. Hankison would still be lauded as a hero, despite his multiple disciplinary infractions. Walker would likely still be in jail awaiting trial for attempted murder, because (fact) he was initially charged with murder of a police officer-a fact that is not only a lie about his actions but a complete impossibility, as no police had been killed.

Yet, in his role as prosecutor, Cameron can present the grand jury with the facts he wants to present-a blizzard of facts that can blind the truth, if he chooses to do so. The police said that they announced themselves. Though it's true that they claim it, whether they actually did announce themselves is contested, given that most witnesses say that they did not. This is what the Louisville civil-rights attorney Larry Simon calls "a disputed fact." The police were justified in returning fire. Kentucky State law says that both Walker and the police have justifiable self-defense claims: Walker's is Kentucky's Stand Your Ground law and "castle doctrine," which submits that Kentuckians may seek to protect themselves or their loved ones in self-defense, and have no duty to retreat or submit to force. The police are justified in returning fire when an officer is threatened with bodily harm or injury. These are two competing claims of self-defense. Walker is justified in defending himself against an intruder, but an intruder is not justified in breaking into a home. The only class of people who may break into your home are the police, but even the police bear the burden of proving why they may break into your home. They must obtain a lawful search warrant: that is what brings them to the door under lawful pretenses; otherwise, they are intruders-like anyone else entering without your permission. And, according to Kentucky law, you have a right to protect and defend yourself against intruders. The determination of whether Walker's claim would nudge out the L.M.P.D.'s would therefore depend upon the legality of the search warrant and the timing of when the police identified themselves. Yet how can we know what this particular instance looked like with no footage of what happened at the scene? Ask the cops? Use the officers' testimony as determinative evidence? The same L.M.P.D. that kept up the pretense for weeks that it was Taylor who shot at them? The same L.M.P.D. that said officers "found a woman dead from gunfire"?

Prior to Taylor's, the largest settlement that Louisville had paid out was 8.5 million dollars, in 2012, to Edwin Chandler, a man who had been wrongfully convicted of manslaughter. The L.M.P.D. ignored evidence that would have exonerated him. They suppressed witness testimony. Chandler spent nine years in prison and ten more years fighting to clear his name. Meanwhile, the officer who lied and planted evidence was promoted. Chandler might never have been exonerated based on "the facts" had one "good cop"-Denny Butler-not unearthed proof of Chandler's innocence from under a mound of evidence used against him.

Larry Simon, one of Chandler's attorneys, said that the largest omission of Cameron's in the Taylor case was in what options-or lack of them-he gave the grand jury for charges. "Everybody with any legal, criminal-legal background knows, the grand jury is essentially controlled by the prosecutor's office that presents the evidence," Simon said. "The prosecutor's office determines what evidence is presented. And then, more importantly, they determine what charges are going to be actually presented to the grand jury that they actually vote on. So the bottom line is, when the grand jury reports, it says, 'Judge, we got a three-count indictment against Hankison.' And the judge says, 'O.K., anything else?' 'Nope, that's it.' When there's nothing else, no document that says the grand jury considered and refused to indict the other two officers or Hankison on any degree of homicide involving Ms. Taylor, what that means to me is, they weren't given that option."

But this seems to be just what Cameron wants. No options. Cameron said, "Justice is not often easy, does not fit the mold of public opinion, and it does not conform to shifting standards. It only answers to the facts, and to the law." But given that the police are already a protected class, and given that all Black people are essentially "soft targets" for police, it is the criminal-justice system that must shift, must change-not activism against it. If the very gears of the criminal-justice system turn and grind in indifference to who Breonna Taylor was while alive-and kept turning even after her death-then we must change those gears, fix that machinery. We must change how the law works-to serve us, not condemn us to death.

Cameron wants to repeat himself endlessly about facts, because facts have a way of coming off as unassailable and bloodless. Don't get me wrong. I love facts. I'm a die-hard trivia buff. But facts are not truths. The truth is that Breonna Taylor got no notice whatsoever for doing no crime whatsoever. To be given notice, you'd have to be considered deserving of notice, important enough to be notified. She'd served her country, her state, her city, and her adopted home town of Louisville, Kentucky, as an E.M.T. She was a mentor to her friends, her sister-even her own mother, who wrote, after the verdict, "You didn't just rob me and my family you robbed the world of a queen. A queen willing to do a job that most of us could never stomach; a queen willing to build up anyone around her. A queen who was starting to pave her path. I hope you never know the pain of knowing your child is in need of help and you're not able to get to them. I hope you never know the sounds of hearing someone crying and begging to get your child help and those cries be ignored. I hope you never know the pain of your child being murdered 194 days in a row!"

Breonna Taylor. A queen willing to do a job that most of us could never stomach. But what if she hadn't served as an essential worker, or been so wonderful? What if she hadn't been as ebullient and bubbly and as amazing as everyone says? What if she hadn't done a single thing but breathe in and out, long enough to stay alive and to live out the rest of her days?

Race, Policing, and Black Lives Matter Protests

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The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor Decision

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Those seeking justice for Breonna Taylor's death were denied it on Wednesday, when a Kentucky grand jury refused to charge any of the officers who shot at her with murder or manslaughter.

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transcript

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is "The Daily."

Today: A grand jury in Kentucky, weighing evidence in one of the country's most contentious police shootings, declined to bring charges against the two officers who shot Breonna Taylor. My colleague, Rukmini Callimachi, is in Louisville. It's Thursday, September 24.

Rukmini, it's about 12:30 in the morning on Thursday. And we're really grateful that we're able to talk to you. And I guess, just to start with, where are you this morning?

rukmini callimachi

I'm in Louisville in an Airbnb where I'm staying.

michael barbaro

And how long have you been in Louisville?

rukmini callimachi

I got here on Monday. We heard last week that the attorney general of Kentucky was going to announce whether the three officers who killed Breonna Taylor on the night of March 13th - whether or not they were going to be charged. There was a lot of anticipation over this announcement. Last week, Breonna Taylor's mother received a near record settlement of $12 million for the death of her daughter. And a number of police reforms were announced by the city. But her mother and her relatives and advocates for Breonna Taylor have made it very clear that nothing short of charging all three officers who killed her with murder would amount to justice.

michael barbaro

Hm.

rukmini callimachi

Now I've spent the last couple of days speaking to legal experts about this case. And the people that I spoke to said very clearly that they thought that the attorney general was essentially between a rock and a hard place. They said that because of the fact that when the officers entered Breonna Taylor's home, her boyfriend Kenny Walker, who mistook the police for an intruder, opened fire and shot one of the police officers - because of that dynamic, the fact that the officers shot back and ultimately killed her would be protected under Kentucky's self-defense statute.

michael barbaro

So here you have Breonna Taylor's mother saying nothing short of an indictment of these three police officers involved in the raid that killed her daughter would represent justice. And on the other hand, you've all these legal experts saying that is extremely unlikely because of the sequence of events that happened and the state law governing police and self-defense?

rukmini callimachi

That's exactly it. And Breonna's family wasn't just saying that they should be indicted. They were saying that they should be indicted for murder, for manslaughter. So on Monday, we knew that the grand jury began meeting. We had sources who confirmed that to us. We knew that they kept on deliberating on Tuesday. And by Tuesday night, we were expecting an announcement.

Meanwhile, all over the city, there were signs of preparation for a clash. The mayor's office issued an announcement that a state of emergency had been declared. The police department announced that vacation days were going to be canceled. No police officers were going to be given off days. We started hearing that the National Guard might be called in, that the Kentucky state police were sending officers here. And meanwhile, an ever-growing cordon was created around the city square that had been the nucleus of these protests, which have been going on now in the city nearly every night for more than 100 days.

They put up concrete barriers. They brought in big dump trucks that blocked off the streets. Chain link fences were put around the area, making it impossible to drive there. On top of that, federal court announced last week that they were closing. Then just before the announcement, we heard that all of the other courts - family court, district court, all of these other courts also announced they were closing.

michael barbaro

It sounds like everyone in town seems to recognize what is about to happen. And everyone is on guard for it.

rukmini callimachi

Especially downtown - the Hyatt is boarded up. The Marriott is boarded up. Business after business, government office after government office in the downtown corridor, which is where the heart of these protests have been happening. And I think that's a reflection of the fact that more and more protesters were showing up in the square with weapons. This is an open carry state. So it's completely legal to do that. But there was an ever-growing sense that we were heading towards some sort of clash. And that that clash could be violent.

michael barbaro

So what happens earlier today, on Wednesday?

rukmini callimachi

As soon as I woke up on Wednesday morning, I had a text message from one of my good sources, an official who's helped me understand this investigation. And he said cryptically, it's beautiful weather for breaking news. Be ready. The next thing I heard was from a city official who confirmed the same thing. That there was going to be an announcement soon. And we started hearing that a possible time was going to be 1 o'clock, maybe 2 o'clock, and possibly that it was going to be in Frankfort, which is an hour away from where I am now, in Louisville.

And it wasn't until 11:40 a.m. that I got an email from the attorney general's office, saying the announcement is going to be at 1:30. So I jumped in a car and raced to this place. It was like 50 minutes, almost an hour away. And I almost missed the cutoff. I mean, I literally got in my car the second I got the announcement. And I almost didn't make it. When I got to Frankfurt, we found the capital had again been locked down. There were several city blocks that had police tape across them. Police officers directed me to where the media parking was. And then I entered the building where this announcement was going to happen.

Once I got inside, there was a man who checked my bag. Then they asked me to put my bag on the floor. There was a dog with a handler that came and sniffed my bag. And then a second person took apart my bag and looked inside. And only at that point did they give me a badge and did I go all the way in. The chairs were spaced more than six feet apart. It was a very spacious area because of Covid. We were all waiting quietly. And sometime after 1:30 p.m. -

rukmini callimachi

- the attorney general, Daniel Cameron, stepped onto this makeshift stage.

rukmini callimachi

- and began addressing the reporters.

rukmini callimachi

And he described the death of Breonna Taylor as a tragedy. And then went on to explain exactly what the legal experts I had spoken to had said.

rukmini callimachi

There were three officers who discharged their weapons on the night of March 13. These three officers were sent to Breonna Taylor's apartment with a legal warrant that had been signed by a magistrate the day before. These were not rogue cops that just broke into somebody's house. They had a legal document allowing them to go there.

rukmini callimachi

They showed up at her apartment sometime after 12:40 a.m. And they began loudly knocking at her door. This is something that we know from our own reporting, because Kenny Walker, Breonna Taylor's boyfriend, confirmed hearing the knocking. The attorney general went on to say that they had witnesses that said that they heard the police both knock and announce themselves.

rukmini callimachi

As soon as they went in, they were met with gunfire from Breonna Taylor's boyfriend, who had not heard them announce themselves.

rukmini callimachi

The two officers who opened fire first, John Mattingly and Miles Cosgrove, were in the hallway directly facing Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend. And they returned fire in the direction in which they had been fired upon from.

rukmini callimachi

So he explained to us that because of the Kentucky statute on self-defense -

rukmini callimachi

He explained that these officers were justified in shooting back.

rukmini callimachi

There was another officer, Brett Hankison, a detective, he was also in this formation by the door. But when the shooting began, he did something that, to this day remains inexplicable. And that is that he spun around and he ran outside into the parking lot. And from there, he began shooting blindly and erratically into the sliding glass door of her patio and into the window of one of her bedrooms. And he did this even though both of those openings were covered with blinds. So he did not have a line of sight inside.

We know that his bullets traveled through her living room, her kitchen, and clear through to the apartment in the back, where there was a couple - a pregnant woman and her husband - and their 5-year-old child, who were asleep.

rukmini callimachi

This is when the attorney general then explained that that officer was going to be charged with wanton endangerment.

rukmini callimachi

This is a lower class felony, one for which you can get up to five years per count. And he was being charged with three counts because of the fact that his bullets traveled into the apartment behind Breonna Taylor's, where there was the couple and their child. Crucially, he explained something that we did not know up to this point.

rukmini callimachi

He said that Brett Hankison's bullets did not touch Breonna Taylor. The person whose shots killed her was a detective named Miles Cosgrove, who was in the hallway of her apartment. And this is according to the ballistics analysis that was done by the F.B.I. at their lab in Quantico.

michael barbaro

Rukmini, just to summarize, during this news conference, the attorney general said that charges will be brought against the one officer whose gunshots never struck Breonna Taylor?

rukmini callimachi

That's right.

michael barbaro

And in the case of the two officers who did shoot Breonna Taylor, neither of them will be charged?

rukmini callimachi

You know, we had anticipated that this was most likely going to be the result that would occur. But it was clear from the way that the attorney general presented this information that he had himself agonized over it, and that he knew that this was going to disappoint people. He said at one point in the press conference, this is a tragedy.

rukmini callimachi

And then he went on. Detective Cosgrove and Sergeant Mattingly were justified in returning fire because they were fired upon.

michael barbaro

And Rukmini, I actually watched that news conference. And what I heard him say next was basically that the people of Louisville - who he knew were going to be upset by what he said and by what you heard, because you were in the room - and he basically presented them with a choice. You know, will you accept this, even though you may not like it? Or will you react with rage and even with violence?

rukmini callimachi

That's right. That's right. One of the quotes I wrote down in my notebook was, "If we simply act on outrage, there is no justice."

rukmini callimachi

Our reaction to truth today says what kind of society we are.

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

archived recording 1

Say her name!

archived recording 2

Breonna Taylor.

archived recording 3

Say her name!

archived recording 4

Breonna Taylor.

rukmini callimachi

So as this press conference is coming to an end, I'm seeing a Whatsapp channel of my colleagues who are back in Louisville.

john eligon

I'm with The New York Times newspaper.

archived recording

Uh huh.

john eligon

What do you think about -

archived recording

No man, you know. Look, look what's happening. You know it ain't right, man.

rukmini callimachi

My colleague, John Eligon -

john eligon

How do you feel about the decision there?

protester

How do I feel?

john eligon

Yeah.

protester

It's not right, man.

rukmini callimachi

My colleague, Malachy Browne, my colleague, Alexandra Garcia.

rukmini callimachi

They have fanned out across Louisville. They're in the square. They're in the areas where the protesters are.

archived recording (protester 1)

(SCREAMING) You did not do your job!

archived recording (protester 2)

No one has been held accountable. This is injustice.

rukmini callimachi

And they're reporting that -

rukmini callimachi

- the protesters are sobbing.

rukmini callimachi

And that anger is mounting.

archived recording (protester)

No lives matter till Black Lives Matter!

archived recording (crowd)

No lives matter till Black Lies Matter!

archived recording (protester)

No justice -

archived recording (crowd)

No peace.

archived recording (protester)

No justice -

archived recording (crowd)

No peace.

archived recording (protester)

No justice -

archived recording (crowd)

No peace.

rukmini callimachi

And for the first part of the day -

rukmini callimachi

- they were chanting.

rukmini callimachi

They were walking.

rukmini callimachi

And then you started to see a couple of small disturbances.

rukmini callimachi

Malachy Browne was present at one area of the city where a protester that had a stick began smashing some windows and broke the windows of a business. They kept marching and they kept on getting dispersed by the police in different areas.

rukmini callimachi

By late afternoon, I had made it back. And at this point, because what the city had done by creating all of these roadblocks and chain link fences and obstacles leading to the square, what that meant is that there wasn't a central point for them to meet. So for much of the day, we were just kind of chasing the protesters. They're here. They're there. We're going to this place. We're going to that place.

rukmini callimachi

Things intensified -

rukmini callimachi

- when the sun went down.

rukmini callimachi

It was my colleague, Alexandra Garcia, who was filming at an area that was near an overpass, when suddenly -

rukmini callimachi

- shots rang out.

archived recording

[GUNFIRE]

archived recording (police)

Shots fired. Shots fired.

rukmini callimachi

Very quickly, on social media, we started to see messages indicating that a police officer was down.

archived recording 1

[SIRENS BLARING]

archived recording 2

Officer down. [INTERPOSING VOICES]

archived recording 3

Take cover!

rukmini callimachi

I was actually with Sam Aguilar, who is Breonna Taylor's family's lawyer. He had just walked past me on the street. And we got as far as an area where we saw squad cars with flashing lights. And it was at that point that I got an email from one of the police spokesmen who said that an officer had been shot. In fact, more than one officer had been shot and that they would get back to us when they had more information.

rukmini callimachi

At that point, we fell in with a group of protesters. And they had shared that there was a safe house that they were going to. And so we followed them to the safe house.

rukmini callimachi

The safe house was actually a church. It was the First Unitarian Church. And when I got there, I was able to speak to Reverend Lori, the minister of that church. And she explained to us that they had researched the law. That it was private property. And that they believed that the municipal ordinance stated that even when a curfew is in place, if you're leaving a religious service, you cannot be stopped.

When we got there, there was a guy called Father Tim who was giving out bottles of water to the protesters. They had snacks, granola bars, chips, everything. And several dozen protesters arrived there. And they were using their megaphones in the sanctuary of the church, giving the same speeches that they would have been giving out into the square.

john eligon

After you heard the results of the investigation today, what's your reaction to that now?

protester

It made me want to come out and march for the first time. They've been marching for 119 days. This is the first time I felt like I should come.

michael barbaro

Rukmini, I'm curious, as this scene is unfolding, if you're able to talk to people about their reaction to this grand jury decision, what they're saying about it.

rukmini callimachi

Well, in anticipation of the decision, I had a series of conversations with people in the square about what they expected. And it was clear from speaking to some of them, there's a pretty big gap between the facts that I and other reporters have been able to uncover in this case - as we've dug and dug and dug - and the narrative and the version of events that the protesters believe. The narrative that I was getting from the protesters, including things like, that the police had gone to the wrong address, or that the police had no legal right to be there, these details don't line up with the actual facts of the case.

michael barbaro

Mhm.

rukmini callimachi

But this is a narrative that has become much bigger than the facts in this case. And that's partly because both the city and the attorney general and other officials have been so stingy with releasing information on this case. I mean, I came here in July. And it took every bit of reporting skill that I had to dislodge these hundreds and now thousands of pages of investigative files. It was really, really hard to get them. But it's only by getting all of this that I finally have this bigger picture that the attorney general talked about today.

The other issue is -

rukmini callimachi

- Breonna Taylor's name -

rukmini callimachi

- has spread from coast to coast.

rukmini callimachi

She's become bigger than the facts of her case. She's become a symbol of a young black woman killed in a cruel and awful way by a group of white cops.

archived recording 1

Breonna Taylor! Breonna Taylor! Breonna Taylor!

archived recording 2

Say her name!

archived recording 3

Breonna Taylor!

[music]

michael barbaro

Rukmini, try to get some sleep. And thank you very much.

rukmini callimachi

Thank you so much. Take care, Michael.

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today.

The body of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was carried into the great hall of the Supreme Court building on Wednesday for the start of three days of public mourning for her death.

michael barbaro

During a short ceremony, the court's chief justice, John Roberts, remembered Ginsburg as a champion of equal justice.

michael barbaro

That's it for "The Daily." I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

Unrest has again rocked the city after a grand jury in Kentucky declined to bring charges against the two officers who shot Breonna Taylor.

Hosted by Michael Barbaro, produced by Luke Vander Ploeg, Andy Mills and Stella Tan, and edited by Larissa Anderson, Lisa Chow and Lisa Tobin

Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile device:
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This episode contains strong language.

Breonna Taylor's mother and her supporters had made their feelings clear: Nothing short of murder charges for all three officers involved in Ms. Taylor's death would amount to justice.

On Wednesday, one of the officers was indicted on a charge of "wanton endangerment." No charges were brought against the two officers whose bullets actually struck Ms. Taylor.

In response, protesters have again taken to the streets to demand justice for the 26-year-old who was killed in her apartment in March.

We speak to our correspondent Rukmini Callimachi, who is in Louisville, Ky., about the reaction to the grand jury's decision.

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transcript

Protests Erupt in Louisville After Breonna Taylor Decision

Protesters took to the streets in Louisville, Ky., after the state's attorney general announced that only one of three officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor would be charged.

"On or about March 13, 2020, in Jefferson County, Ky., the above-named defendant, Brett Hankison, committed the offense of wanton endangerment in the first degree. That concludes the business of the grand jury sitting for Jefferson County in September 2020. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, you may be excused." "That's it?" "Is that the only charge?" "The cannot do their jobs! This is why we are angry! This is why we are upset!" "Say her name!" "Breonna Taylor!" "What do we want?" "Justice!" "If we don't get it." "Shut it down!" "If we don't get it!" "Burn it down!" "If we don't get it!" "Burn it down!" "Coming through. Coming through." "Move. Move."

Protesters took to the streets in Louisville, Ky., after the state's attorney general announced that only one of three officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor would be charged. Credit Credit... Xavier Burrell for The New York Times

Rukmini Callimachi contributed reporting.

"The Daily" is made by Theo Balcomb, Andy Mills, Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Annie Brown, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Dorr, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, Kelly Prime, Julia Longoria, Sindhu Gnanasambandan, M.J. Davis Lin, Austin Mitchell, Neena Pathak, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Daniel Guillemette, Hans Buetow, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Bianca Giaever, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi and Rachelle Bonja. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Mikayla Bouchard, Lauren Jackson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Nora Keller, Sofia Milan and Desiree Ibekwe.

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transcript michael barbaro From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is "The Daily." Today: A grand jury in Kentucky, weighing evidence in one of the country's most contentious police shootings, declined to bring charges against the two officers who shot Breonna Taylor. My colleague, Rukmini Callimachi, is in Louisville.

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The Breonna Taylor Narrative is Based on Lies

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The Breonna Taylor Narrative is Based on Lies

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RUSH: Once again the Breonna Taylor story is, if you wonder why I call the media the Drive-By Media, the Breonna Taylor story is a 100 percent perfect illustration. The media blow into a volatile situation, they show up, and then they blow it up lying about it, misrepresenting it, misreporting it.

They create chaos and havoc because of the out-and-out lies that they tell, like "hands up, don't shoot" in Ferguson, lying about Michael Brown to the point people were questioning the grand jury, two of them. And then after a while they move on, heading on down the road to the next story that they're gonna do the exact same thing to, practice journalistic malpractice. They leave murder and mayhem, chaos, and confusion in their wake. Same thing with the Trayvon Martin case. Same thing Michael Brown case in Ferguson. The Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Everything pushed by the media about the Breonna Taylor case was based on lies.

Now, the media will refuse to admit the truth. They're gonna spin the narrative to claim they never reported incorrectly. Nope. They'll blame it on something else. The sources got things wrong or however they choose to do it. But the truth is, everything the media claimed about Breonna Taylor's death was a lie. They claimed that she was shot during a no-knock warrant. False. Not true. There was not a no-knock warrant. The media claimed that Breonna Taylor was shot in her bed. That's not true. The media claimed Breonna Taylor was murdered. That's not true. It was an accident.

"Everything the media and lawyer Ben Crump claimed about the death of Breonna Taylor and the circumstances around her death was based on lies. The officials in Kentucky allowed a mountain of lies to grow until the evidence was finally presented to a grand jury and the Kentucky Attorney General was forced to admit the truth. According to evidence revealed at a press conference by AG Daniel Cameron, the police executed a search warrant by knocking on the door. Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker refused to answer the door after the police identified themselves. The police broke down the door. Kenneth Walker was armed and shot first at police. The police returned fire and that's how Breonna Taylor was shot and killed.

"No police officers were charged with the death of Breonna Taylor because they were responding to being fired upon. It appears Mr. Walker used his girlfriend as a shield. One officer, Brett Hankison," whose name you've now heard over and over again, "who did not shoot any person, was charged with 'wonton endangerment' for haphazardly firing 10 shots that entered the adjacent apartment unit.

"Breonna Taylor's killing set off months of protests in Louisville and other cities and drew national attention. Celebrities and civil-rights activists demanding justice and urged Kentucky AG Cameron to bring charges against the officers involved. Last week, the city of Louisville said it would pay $12 million to Ms. Taylor's estate as part of a legal settlement with her family. The agreement also required the city to implement policy changes, including a mandate for police commanders to approve all search warrants. Today the shooting was ruled justified as the police were responding to being fired upon by Ms. Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker.

"As with the Trayvon Martin case.... and as with the Michael Brown case..... and as with the Freddie Gray case.... everything pushed by the media about the Breonna Taylor case was based on lies."

So the country is roiled. The Democrat Party and its agents are now creating mayhem. Let there be no mistake. The people making violence, the people creating the violence, the people engaged in all of these so-called peaceful protests are Democrats. They are the people who will vote Democrat. They are the people who are Democrat. There's not a single Republican among 'em.

Now, you might find at the head of the line some white, college-aged women who are purposely stationed there to make it look like it's a peaceful protest and that it's white people feeling guilty about this and demanding that the president and the Republican Party apologize and all this. The Republican Party and President Trump have literally nothing to do with this. They have nothing to do with the rioting. They have nothing to do with looting, whatever is going on in Louisville. This is strictly a Democrat Party operation.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Benjamin Crump is the lawyer for the family Breonna Taylor. He was on The View today on ABC News, and let's see. He got a question I guess from Sunny Hostin. I'm not sure who asked the question. Doesn't matter. The question is... No, it was Sara Haines. Sara Haines said, "One of the officers was indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment of the neighbors, but not of Breonna Taylor. Now, how does that legally break down or even make sense?"

So here's Benjamin Crump, the lawyer, and then you'll hear some other gals from The View.

CRUMP: Just because they tell us it's legal, that doesn't mean it's right. Whoopi.

HOSTIN: Exactly.

CRUMP: Whoopi, everything that happened to the Jews in Germany they said was legal, but that didn't make it right.

RUSH: What?

CRUMP: Joy, slavery was legal, but that didn't make it right.

RUSH: What?

CRUMP: When they killed Emmet teal, they said that was legal, but that didn't make it right.

RUSH: What?

CRUMP: And now they're I'm trying to say it was legal what they did to Breonna Taylor.

GOLDBERG: Right.

CRUMP: Ladies, that does not make it right.

GOLDBERG: Right.

RUSH: So the lawyer here for Breonna Taylor's family just compared the cops in Louisville to Nazis. This is where we are. The lawyer for the Breonna Taylor family is comparing the cops in Louisville to Nazis, and still the American people don't know who the Democrats are.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ty in Atlanta, you're next on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Mr. Rush, I appreciate your taking my call.

RUSH: Yes, sir. Great to have you here with us.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, I listen to you every day. You're very, very informative and most times entertaining. But what really got me today was when you stated that the Breonna Taylor killing was just a mistake. I don't... I don't see how that can be voiced without any lack of compassion, concern, or anything for the young lady that lost her life.

RUSH: Well, it was an accident, not a mistake. It was an accident. These cops show up, and the first thing that happens is they get fired on, and so they returned fire, and she ends up being hit in the return fire.

CALLER: Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Now, me being a Second Amendment advocate - just like I'm sure you are - and a father of two daughters, and a husband, if someone were to come into my home at 3 o'clock in the morning, the first thing I'm gonna do is shoot to try to protect my family. Now, here's where the problem lies" The warrant that they issued was a warrant that was past. Two months -

RUSH: Wait a minute.

CALLER: Yeah?

RUSH: If it's the cops that show up, the first thing you're gonna do is shoot?

CALLER: Well, at 3 o'clock in the morning when you're half asleep, how would you know they're the cops and someone's in your home? And in your home, like a typical person, I'm sure your home is dark.

RUSH: Well, I don't know. But also, I can't imagine that the first thing I do is fire before anything else has happened. Somebody shows up, "Hi, we're from the police. We got a warrant here," blah, blah, blah. "Oh, no, you... Blam! Fire," and then the cops fire back. I mean, I don't know that that's the first thing I would do is fire on whoever's on the other side of the door.

CALLER: Well, Mr. Rush, not on the other side of the door in the door. But here's the thing. The reason why police execute those type of warrants at that time of day is to catch you off guard. They're not announcing like, "Hey, come talk to us. We're the police." No.

They're coming in, guns drawn, and the first thing that you do while you're wiping your eyes is see someone in all black in a black house with guns pointed at you - and your wife, your misses, your children. That's really scary. Now, the problem is that that warrant... The person they issued that warrant for, they already had in custody. So worst-case scenario, that is incompetence. The police -

RUSH: Wait. The police... Here's the problem here. The police knocked. They announced themselves. They are then fired on. Everything that happened makes perfect common sense.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: Whether you've got a no-knock warrant or you're gonna argue about that... It may have been a no-knock warrant, but they didn't have a chance. They show up and announce to themselves - and even if they had the no-knock warrant, they didn't break through the door. They announced themselves. They got shot. They were fired upon after that happened.

I don't know that the first thing that would happen, under any circumstances, if my first action would be to fire through the door at somebody who claimed they were the cops. In my case, I would have ways of knowing who's on the other side of the door. I don't know about this particular place. That's why, you know, trying to put other people in these circumstances is a tough thing.

But I think the truth of this, Ty, is that the American people have been lied to through their teeth about this story like they were lied to about Michael Brown in Ferguson, lied to about Freddie Gray in Baltimore, lied to about Trayvon Martin. It is like they've been lied to about Donald Trump supposedly saying that the neo-Nazi skinheads in Charlottesville were good people.

So much garbage has been thrown at the American people that they end up believing it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Josh in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hello. Glad you waited.

CALLER: Thank you, sir. I can't tell you what an honor and a pleasure. Mega dittos to you, prayers to you. I've been listening to you since I've been a teenager, and I'm in my early fifties now. I gotta tell you three things in reference. I was a police officer for almost a decade. I dealt with the situation of traffic stops, the Michael Brown situation all the way down here where people were using the "hands up, don't shoot" scenario on a traffic stop.

But in reference to the Breonna Taylor situation, of course we know the left is gonna use anything they consider a tragedy and, yes, this is a tragedy, any loss of life, all lives matter is a tragedy, especially in a way that it seems that her life was taken. But on the same token. Let's look at a couple things. Number one, your caller a couple calls ago, I appreciate he's an advocate of the Second Amendment, but let's consider the fact he said he's gonna shoot as they come in. How many left-wing liberals have tried to get rid of the castle law where you can't shoot when somebody's trying to come in your house? You have to prove that your life is threatened, even in your own home.

RUSH: Good point. Good point. Well, so much of the story was not true, as reported. You see, this is the problem, Josh. And as an ex-cop, I have to think that you are well aware of this. The American people have literally been lied to about so much, and they don't know it. I keep bringing it up because I think it's one of the most egregious examples, the fact that Trump said there were good people on both sides, including the neo-Nazis and the skinheads. He didn't say it.

Now coming close behind it in second place, they're trying to get as many people as possible to believe that Trump said of dead Marines in cemeteries around the world that they're a bunch of jokers and losers, that he doesn't respect military people that get killed. He didn't say it. There's no evidence for it. Nothing but four anonymous sources who will not come forth and confirm or identify themselves. The media is still running with it.

Oh. And how about the fact that Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the 2016 election? That is still out there. They're still making hay over it. And it is shocking how many Americans believe all of that. "Hands up, don't shoot" in Ferguson, St. Louis. Trayvon Martin in Florida. Freddie Gray in Baltimore. And the list could go on and on and on and on. Now they've been trying to add Breonna Taylor to it. I'm glad, Josh, that you called.

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The Breonna Taylor Narrative Is Based on Lies

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Rush Limbaugh, America's Anchorman and Doctor of Democracy, is known as the pioneer of AM radio. Limbaugh revolutionized the media and political landscape with his unprecedented combination o f serious discussion of political, cultural and social issues along with satirical and biting humor.