Activists gathered in Louisville, and called for police reform.
The one-year anniversary of the police killing of Breonna Taylor was on Saturday, and activists, lawmakers, and Taylor’s family spent it by renewing calls for criminal justice reform. In Louisville, Kentucky, members of Taylor’s family and community activists convened a rally to mark the anniversary of Taylor’s death and to call for accountability for the officers involved in her shooting. Hundreds of demonstrators chanted Taylor’s name, reportedly shouting, “You can’t stop the revolution.” Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, was killed in her home in Louisville on March 13, 2020, after three white police officers forced entry into her home using a “no-knock” warrant as part of a narcotics raid, looking for a suspect who no longer resided at Taylor’s address. Officers opened fire after Taylor’s boyfriend — a legal gun owner who said he did not know the people forcing their way into the apartment were police — fired one shot in self-defense. Taylor was shot six times and killed. Taylor — along with George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis about two months later — became an emblem of the racialized and excessively violent nature of law enforcement in the US. Her name, and the chant “Say her name,” were rallying cries at protests that swept across the United States in the summer of 2020 and triggered a broader cultural reckoning with racism in American life. While the city of Louisville reached a $12 million settlement with Taylor’s family in September 2020, none of the officers involved in the botched raid were charged with her death.
