By: Dwight Haggard III
Louisville, Kentucky, saw its most violent year in 2020.[i] According to statistics from the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD), by September 2020, 121 murders were reported reaching a new record for violent crime with three months left in the year.[ii] The record number of murders put a strain on LMPD’s homicide unit, which created an unattainable goal of providing investigative services for many victims’ families.[iii]While property crime dropped 10% in 2020, Lt. Col. Joshua Judah, the department’s patrol bureau commander, attributes the decline to stay-at-home orders issued across the Commonwealth by Governor Andy Beshear.[iv]Consequently, the 30% decrease in police activity from 2019 was due to the LMPD announcing that officers were limiting in-person responses to incidents like car crashes because of the risks of contracting COVID-19.[v] Surprisingly, WDRB found that the LMPD’s Second Division spanning predominately African American neighborhoods along the lines of Algonquin, California, Park Hill, and Shawnee saw a 15% increase in violent crimes and a 5% spike in property crimes.[vi] Furthermore, the city has even less to celebrate after the LMPD murdered Breonna Taylor on March 13, 2020.
Six months after Breonna Taylor was murdered, Taylor’s family and the City of Louisville reached a settlement; the settlement included wide-ranging reforms, but some activists believe the reforms proffered are frivolous without criminal charges against the officers accused of shooting Breonna Taylor six times in her home.[vii] Louisville is in dire need of police reform and a new prosecutor in Breonna Taylor’s case to combat and cure its increasing crime rate. Members of the community must stand together by boycotting the 147th Kentucky Derby, thereby rejecting the injustices faced by Breonna Taylor at the hands of the LMPD.
According to Bill Quigley, writer for OpenDemocracy, “The biggest crime in the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is a race-based institution where African Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people.”[viii] Quigley explains that the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice found that since 1970, drug arrests have skyrocketed, rising from 320,00 to nearly 1.6 million.[ix] What more, the arrest rate for African Americans charged with drug offenses was 11-times higher than the rate for white people.[x] This racial injustice created a gateway for police departments to storm into houses, similar to the LMPD when they broke down Breonna Taylor’s door and shot her to death.
In 2015, the Kentucky Derby set its own record when the event garnered 170,513 attendees.[xi] Previously, the record set in 2012 was 165,307 attendees.[xii] It is evident that the Derby is rising in both recognition and national attention. If Louisville is not willing to provide substantive reforms along with a new prosecutor assigned to Breonna Taylor’s case, then the community of Louisville must organize and boycott the Kentucky Derby. In 2020, Churchill Downs lost $149 million from delaying the Kentucky Derby due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.[xiii] Year after year, the Derby profits hundreds of millions of dollars. Last year, protestors and militiamen subverted the attention usually paid to horse races in order to bring awareness to the murder of Breonna Taylor.
The black armed militia known as Not F***ing Around Coalition (NFAC) led a march on Churchill Downs on September 5, 2020, after Kentucky’s Attorney General Daniel Cameron failed to complete a thorough investigation into Taylor’s murder in a timely manner.[xiv] Of the 200 NFAC members, their leader, Grandmaster Jay, stated that the main goal of the march was seeking justice for Breonna Taylor and her family.[xv] Tensions rose between Black Lives Matter protestors and the police, as well as a conservative militia called the Boogaloo Boys and the NFAC; the standoff diverted attention away from the Kentucky Derby and refocused society’s attention on the murder of Breonna Taylor.[xvi] Ten days after the Kentucky Derby, Taylor’s family received a $12 million settlement from the city of Louisville.[xvii]
Boycotting the Kentucky Derby allows Kentuckians to utilize their spending power and demand justice for Breonna Taylor. Not one officer was directly charged with Taylor’s murder.[xviii] Three anonymous grand jurors came forward to testify that Attorney General Daniel Cameron only presented charges to the grand jury for wanton endangerment.[xix] Breonna Taylor’s mother since then petitioned the state Prosecutors Advisory Council for a different prosecutor to consider charges against the LMPD officers involved in Taylor’s murder.[xx]
Thus, the battle requesting officers Myles Cosgrove, Brent Hankinson, Joshua Jaynes, and Jonathan Mattingly be held accountable for their actions rages on. The Supreme Court has not made it easier for citizens because they have given police officers more power over the past two decades.[xxi] In 2006, the Court ruled in a 5-to-4 decision that “police who burst into a private building without first knocking and announcing their presence can use the evidence they discover in a criminal case.”[xxii] Evidently, together the police and judicial system in this country are working against citizens by stripping them of their personal liberties. To combat the senseless killings in which police are not held accountable for their actions, we must stand in solidarity with Breonna Taylor’s family by boycotting the Kentucky Derby until the request for a new prosecutor is granted.
[i] Mark Morales & Elizabeth Joseph, More people were killed in Louisville this year than ever before in the city's history, CNN (Sep. 22, 2020), https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/22/us/louisville-2020-violence/index.html [https://perma.cc/5TG6-W4FM].
[ii] Id.
[iii] Id.
[iv] Marcus Green & Travis Ragsdale, 2020 in Louisville: Violent crime up, property crime down, WDRB (Aug. 20, 2020), https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/2020-in-louisville-violent-crime-up-property-crime-down/article_c7a21294-e31f-11ea-8e6e-7bd4e8170138.html [https://perma.cc/MZ78-9BZH].
[v] Id.
[vi] Id.
[vii] Dylan Lovan, Police reforms in Breonna Taylor case praised, scrutinized, AP News (September 16, 2020), https://apnews.com/article/police-louisville-breonna-taylor-greg-fischer-archive-2c14562279ae5f8e3eee2ab223c10bac [https://perma.cc/M5YM-ZNRY].
[viii] Bill Quigley, 14 Shocking Facts That Prove the US Criminal Justice System is Racist, Open Democracy (July 27, 2020), https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/14-shocking-facts-that-prove-us-criminal-justice-system-is-racist/ [https://perma.cc/Z4GE-5L22].
[ix] Id.
[x] Id.
[xi] SI WIRE, 2015 Kentucky Derby sets attendance record, Sports Illustrated (May 2, 2015), https://www.si.com/horse-racing/2015/05/02/kentucky-derby-2015-attendance-record [https://perma.cc/M3ML-AHPA].
[xii] Id.
[xiii] Grace Schneider, Churchill Downs lost $149 million by delaying the 146th Kentucky Derby during pandemic, Courier Journal (July 30, 2020), https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2020/07/30/churchill-downs-lost-149-million-delaying-146th-kentucky-derby/5535860002/ [https://perma.cc/74R9-6KZ4].
[xiv] Jessie Cohen, NFAC returns to Louisville, holds large march to Churchill Downs, WHAS 11 (Sept. 5, 2020), https://www.whas11.com/article/news/local/nfac-louisville-protest-churchill-downs/417-5435a83f-71c6-4cb9-834d-1035645561de [https://perma.cc/KF8H-UU8K].
[xv] Id.
[xvi] Id.
[xvii] Rukmini Callimachi, Breonna Taylor’s Family to Receive $12 Million Settlement From City of Louisville, N.Y. Times (Sept. 15, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/breonna-taylor-settlement-louisville.html [https://perma.cc/TP2U-VTBD].
[xviii] Marisa Lati, Breonna Taylor’s mother requests new prosecutor as grand jurors say they were denied evidence, Wash. Post (Oct. 30, 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/28/breonna-taylors-mother-requests-new-prosecutor/ [https://perma.cc/E4FD-AB5L].
[xix] Id.
[xx] Id.
[xxi] Warren Richey, Supreme Court gives police more power, The Christian Sci. Monitor (June 16, 2006), https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0616/p02s02-usju.html [https://perma.cc/38BG-CVB6].
[xxii] Id.