Excellent points, all. I do think he put himself on the block though, when he laid the result at the feet of the jury and at the feet of the jury only.
People aren’t stupid. You’re right about generally not understanding the law but ignorance is not stupidity. The public deserves the time and respect of having the process laid out before them so they can understand how the decisions were made.
That’s how change happens. It goes beyond whether the officers are found culpable or not. Ultimately, we want an end to the killings and an end to the fear black people live under. We want this to be the last generation of “the talk”.
We get from here to there by being honest about everything and laying it all bare so we know what needs to change and can figure out how best to go about doing it.
I’m sure he was under enormous pressure. It’s possible his job was at stake. Still, when he took the job he made an oath. Usually, it’s something along the lines of swearing to faithfully execute the duties of the office and state and to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.
He actually has my sympathy here somewhat. I say that because he is oath bound to uphold what I and many believe to be an unconstitutional law. No knock warrants violate the tenets of unlawful search and seizure as well as the phrasing in the preamble of the Constitution to “promote the general Welfare". I mean, is the general Welfare being promoted when the public at large is just acceptable collateral damage? When state actors can just open fire en masse at any time and place with zero accountability any time they get twitchy? When these warrants are issued willy nilly in the first place without the absolute highest judicial review and process in the first place? With barely a side glance? And so so many of them. If we have to have no knock warrants, they should be extremely hard to get under the most extreme circumstances. They should be unicorns. Not draft horses.
So what happens when the two phrases of that oath are at odds? What do you do? I mean, besides enjoy the meat grinder of existential crisis, assuming you have a strong enough soul and sense of right and wrong to gain privy to existential crisis in the first place?
Gaslighting a grieving and beleaguered public is not a good option here. But that’s what he did. That action is worthy of criticism and rebuke. Political parties be damned.
Breonna deserves justice. Justice may or may not entail criminal charges against those officers. It does entail absolute honesty and truth, commitment to completely open process so the public can gain understanding, and pledges from all leaders to see it through to the end and to make changes so that what happened to Breonna does. not. happen. again.
One last thought, and this is not directed specifically as a response to your comment, but to some things said in many of the others. About the civil settlement. I have mixed feelings about civil settlements. Certainly, families deserves some recompense for lost wages, funeral expenses, grief and trauma counseling, to care for children and other dependent family, etc., when a life is lost or injured due to negligence on the part of companies and state actors. But let’s not get to the point where we think all is well because the family got paid so nothing else needs be done. Breonna Taylor was a human being. She is not for sale. In life or in death. I cannot accept that, no one else should either.
