I think Scott Lemieux is right here. The problem is that Breonna Taylor was killed by the legal system we have put in place to win the "war on drugs," not the individual actions that occurred on the night of her death. No-Knock Warrants need to be outlawed except in the most compelling of cases (like a SWAT team charging a potential hostage situation or where an armed gang is known to reside). The argument should always lean AGAINST issuing such warrants.
As we saw with Taylor's death, the police used one of these warrants - legal under existing law - to barge into her apartment in the middle of the night. Her boyfriend returned fire - also entirely within his rights given the castle doctrine. The police returned fire - also within their rights of defending themselves.
And a completely innocent young woman is dead because of it.
Drugs are bad, but not all drugs are equally bad, and drugs crimes are part of the systematic racism of our criminal justice system. White suburban potheads get community service and suspended sentences. The ex-girlfriend of a drug dealer gets killed in her own bed by a hail of bullets.
Add to this, we are a society pathologically infected with guns. The police ARE probably right to fear for their lives because a vocal minority of us insists that any restrictions of firearms is a crime against humanity.
A racist war on drugs, the travesty of no-knock warrants, a dangerous society swimming in guns...all these forces converged on Ms Taylor's apartment that night and killed her.
I get why people are angry that the officers will largely escape consequences for killing her, but the focus should not be on those officers, but on the drug war and the erosion of civil rights that led to her death.
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