Growing the Voices of Our Future
The Westside Gazette Newspaper is honored to feature these editorial made by local students.
Layla DavidsonBy Layla Davidson
The death of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker who was shot and killed by Louisville police, continues to draw attention.
A grand jury indicted a former Louisville police officer on Wednesday for wanton endangerment. No charges were announced against the other two officers who fired shots, and no one was charged for causing Taylor’s death.
Under Kentucky law, a person commits wanton endangerment when he or she “wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person,” and does so “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.” In other words, “reckless endangerment.”
In my criminal justice class at school, we got into a heated discussion on this topic. Some said that the officers should be charged with first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Others said that being charged with first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole is outrageous.
The majority of the African American students believed that she was murdered, and others believed that she was just caught in crossfire and it wasn’t murder.
I can understand both sides. It was unfortunate that Taylor was caught in crossfire; however, I do not believe that this is murder.
Moreover, the person that should really take the blame for this is the person that gave them the information to her house.
This raid was considered “botched.”
Allegedly the person they were looking for was already in custody. Which is where a miscommunication comes in.
Although the officers had a no knock warrant, students still believed that if they had announced themselves this would’ve never happened.
In the end, we focused our anger on the fact that Taylor received no medical attention whatsoever. The verdict is somewhat reasonable. However, it should’ve never taken this long to get justice for Ms. Taylor.
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