Diary of Systematic injustice: Breonna Taylor

The woman presented above is names Breonna Taylor. Taylor, 26,  was a happy, caring EMT who was shot and killed while unarmed during a police raid in her apartment in Kentucky. Officers initially came to the apartment on a search warrant for drugs (which were never found after the incident) intended for her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, but quickly took a dark turn when Kenneth shot one officer in the leg because he heard no police identification and assumed their home was being broken into. Right away, the officers shot over ten times blindly into the apartment, and the neighboring apartment, killing Breonna with 6 shots. Breonna was unarmed and had no reason to be shot at. Since this shooting, millions of people have signed petitions in hopes of getting justice for the wrongful killing of Breonna Taylor, however the policemen on duty that night received little to no repercussions. Two officers were not charged and the last officer, Detective Brett Hankison, was charged with wanton endangerment for shooting 10 rounds with no clear line of sight, however these charges were not in defense of Breonna Taylor, but for the shots that went into the neighboring apartment. The shots that killed unarmed Breonna Taylor were justified, but Hankison was charged for what could have happened to unarmed white neighbors. This shows that endangering a white family is looked at is worse than killing an innocent black woman in the American legal system today.

This semester we looked at a piece called “Can the Subaltern Speak?” by Gayatri Spivak. This piece investigated the premise on how minorities and those of lesser power may speak, but will never be heard because those in power choose not to listen. In Breonna’s case, there are two clear portrayals of this: Black vs. White Americans, and common American citizens vs. the government. The court blatantly put the “endangerment” of White Americans over the actual death of a Black American. While her boyfriend did shoot in attempt of protection, Breonna never did and was not even the one in question for the warrant to begin with, so how is her death rightfully justified? With millions of signatures and an incredible outreach through social media and protests, the American citizens are demanding equality and justice, however the legal system is choosing to overlook what the people of America desire in order to maintain their power over us. America is supposed to be a democratic nation but when the citizens no longer have a say, it is hard to remember that we are supposed to.

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