874 days. That’s how long Breonna Taylor’s family waited for federal charges against the four Louisville police officers responsible for her death. On August 4, 2022, the Justice Department finally acknowledged their offenses - not just in killing Taylor, but for targeting her home in the first place.
The Justice Department charged officers with falsifying information on the warrant to search her apartment, where she was asleep with her current boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. Cops had claimed Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, was using her apartment for a drug dealing operation!
And this news “revitalized” the conversation about an even broader scheme behind it all.
Glover’s home, 10 miles away from Taylor’s, was in the way of a multi-million dollar real estate development plan to gentrify majority-Black West Louisville. Not long after police managed to arrest Glover, the city bought his house, worth $17,160, for ONE dollar.
Also, around this time, police increasingly targeted residents with “nuisance” violations so that developers could take ownership of their homes. And where did 84% of those violations pop up? West Louisville.
These individual cops may get punished, but getting rid of a few bad apples doesn’t change the system. This system uses cops to incarcerate, kill, AND displace us from our homes. Taylor deserved to live, and we all deserve a better future - without police.