Words by Andre Kettle
By a unanimously vote on Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky, the metro council passed an ordinance called “Breonna’s Law,” banning no-knock search warrants in wake of Breonna Taylor’s death.
The ordinance also requires all Louisville Metro Police Department officers to be equipped with an operating body camera while carrying out a search.
The cameras have to be activated no later than five minutes prior to all searches and remain on for five minutes after.
I plan to sign Breonna’s Law as soon as it hits my desk. I suspended use of these warrants indefinitely last month, and wholeheartedly agree with Council that the risk to residents and officers with this kind of search outweigh any benefit. 1/2
— Mayor Greg Fischer (@louisvillemayor) June 11, 2020
The council voted in a 26-0 favor of the ordinance Thursday evening. Louisville’s Mayor Greg Fischer tweeted that he plans to sign it “as soon as it hits my desk.”
Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot eight times on March 13th by Louisville police after officers kicked in their way inside her home exchanging shots with her boyfriend in an attempted drug sting in March. During that time the officers had a no-knock warrant. WKLY states that officials said the officers were not required to wear cameras because they were plain-clothes narcotics officers (like that makes it better).
The officers, Jon Mattingly, 47; Myles Cosgrove, 42; and Brett Hankison, 44, have been placed on administrative reassignment (We need them arrested!). None of the officers so far have been charged in Taylor’s death, despite the public outcry and calls for them to do so.
Tamika Palmer, Breonna’s mom, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that her daughter “would have been amazed to see the world-changing.”
“Now with the passage of the Breonna Taylor Law, she will be saving lives forever,” says Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Taylor’s family, told Cooper on Thursday.
