PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
SAN FRANCISCO – As an organization dedicated to families, equity, and justice, Our Family Coalition (OFC) is outraged at the Kentucky Attorney General’s failure to bring appropriate and substantial charges against the three officers responsible for the murder of Breonna Taylor. Worse, the fact that the only charges brought were of “wanton endangerment” of the lives of Taylor’s white neighbors is simply indefensible.
Our legal system is criminally broken when police officers are immune from consequences even after using a battering ram to burst into a private residence without a warrant to do so, failing to announce themselves as police, and then proceeding to open fire on an unarmed citizen.
“We may not be surprised at this miscarriage of justice,” said Mimi Demissew, OFC’s new Executive Director, “but we are shocked just the same. It’s long overdue that cities divest from the police and other institutions that are used to terrorize Black and Brown families, and reinvest those resources where they will do good – such as community-based institutions, dedicated to support and uplift.”
Demissew notes that San Francisco Mayor London Breed has taken steps in the right direction, replacing armed police officers with trained and unarmed professionals in responses to neighbor disputes, reports on homeless people, school discipline interventions, and other non-criminal activities.
But much more is needed. Demissew notes, “A justice system that fails Breonna Taylor and her family fails us all, and we should all be enraged.” This event may have unfolded across the nation from us, but the time for change is now. Support community based organizations and call your elected officials to demand immediate action.
