Louisville locked down

[Jarlaxle]

They should all get a year in maximum security's general population, with "BAD COP" branded on their faces.

[BoSoxGal]

A deprivation of rights resulting in death can result in a life sentence in federal prison. I hope they get life; they took the life of an entirely innocent and entirely good citizen, simply because they wanted to pad their numbers. I’ve worked with drug task force cops and they are some of the worst cowboys on the bad cop cowboy ranch. Fuck the four of them and thank you Merrick Garland.

[ex-khobar Andy]

From the piece that Scooter quoted:

The action caps a federal investigation that looked at how police obtained the search warrant for Taylor's apartment, something a prior state investigation by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office did not pursue. Cameron has said that aspect was part of the Justice Department's work.

It seemed to me from the beginning that once the 'no-knock' warrant was issued and acted on, the results were almost pre-ordained. As I have said, you try and break down the door in the middle of the night in most houses in my nice white-ish neighborhood, you will be greeted with gun fire.

AG Cameron did not pursue that aspect of the disaster? And he wants to be governor of KY? (He has certainly announced his intention - the election will be in November 2023. He is TFG's endorsed client and he was also on Trump's list of potential candidates for SCOTUS. We have, in this reddest of states, a D Governor and then Rs all the way down. That is largely because even most Rs admit that the prior Governor, Matt Bevin, was a total fucking asshole.). Unless there is some legal reason which is not transparent to me why that is a federal not state issue.

Had this not ended in tragedy we would never have known about the lies used to obtain the warrant. Allegedly, of course. You wonder how often it happens and in fact is SOP for the police.

[BoSoxGal]

There is no legal reason, he’s just the typical gutless bootlicking prosecutor who refused to hold those cops accountable for their lies and how those lies led to an unlawful killing.

[Jarlaxle]

That is the intent of those warrants. They WANT people there. They WANT to kill someone.

[ex-khobar Andy]

It looks as if we may have reached the last act of this sad, sad, story. A young woman is dead, killed by cops, and it appears that she didn't do anything but she may have had a drug dealer boyfriend in her past.

Facts which are not in dispute.

1) Police executing a no-knock warrant at Ms Taylor's apartment in March 2020, looking for the druggie ex-BF, attempted to knock down the door; were shot at by Kenneth Walker - who was not the boyfriend the cops had targeted in their warrant; the cops returned fire and killed Ms Taylor and did not injure Mr Walker. The police say that they announced themselves but there is no independent evidence for this; and of course any gang-banger who wants to gain a second or two of surprise might say the same from the other side of the door. The police sharp-shooters also managed to get a few shots into an adjacent apartment which had nothing to do with anything.
2) The police had a warrant based on faulty information (aka lies) because UPS had said that they had NO knowledge of drugs packages being shipped to that address, which is not what the warrant said.
3) A couple of years ago the KY prosecutor who was running for governor (unsuccessful - we have a D governor in a very red state and at one point Beshear was thought by many - including me - to have a good shot at being Harris's VP choice) decided not to prosecute the two cops because they were responding to the shots from Walker.
4)They have just decided not to prosecute the cops who filed the warrant application (not the same ones who did the shooting) despite the lies used to obtain it. According to CNN "But US District Court Judge Charles Simpson ruled Thursday that the decision by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, to fire his gun when officers burst into the home was “the legal cause of Taylor’s death,” rather than warrantless entry, according to court documents." The point about 'warrantless entry' is that despite the fact that it was fraudulently obtained (i.e., through police lies) it wasn't the cause of death. So it looks as if, at least as far as Kentucky is concerned, it's all fine and dandy and no-one goes to jail.
5) The City of Louisville (i.e., taxpayers like me) did find $12 million as some sort of recompense for Ms Taylor's family. I'd like to think that it might come out of the police pension funds but no, that won't happen.
6) Ms Taylor is still dead. The lying cops are still at work as far as I know. Apparently federal civil rights charges are still alive but I don't know how long they take to wind their way through the system.

In a country with more guns than people, a no-knock arrest at 6AM is just plain idiotic. I can maybe see the need if national interest is at stake (e.g., spies or averting a terrorist attack) but for a routine drug interdiction it's colossally out of place and unnecessary. I live in a suburban neighborhood where my Harris / Walz lawn sign will be in lonely competition with the Trump / Vance signs some of my neighbors will have up. And I can bet that a knock on the door and attempted entry at 6AM will not be welcomed gently.

[Bicycle Bill]

I live in a suburban neighborhood where my Harris / Walz lawn sign will be in lonely competition with the Trump / Vance signs some of my neighbors will have up.  And I can bet that a knock on the door and attempted entry at 6AM will not be welcomed gently.

But why?   I thought Trump/Vance followers, just like all the rest of the MAGA flock, were staunch backers of the boys in blue, to the point that they even modified (defaced?) the US flag, rendering it in black and white with a single blue stripe on it to show that they support "the thin blue line".

One would more likely think that instead of meeting them with guns at the ready and loaded for bear, they'd open the door quietly, welcome them in, let them look around, and then invite them to sit down and share breakfast, or at least a cuppa coffee and a doughnut, since they're here among friends and it's about that time of the morning anyway.

-"BB"-