URBAN LEAGUE LEADERS: GRAND JURY DECISION IS AN AFFRONT TO BREONNA TAYLOR’S MEMORY

LOUISVILLE, KY (September 23, 2020) — Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, and Sadiqa N. Reynolds, Esq., President & CEO of the Louisville Urban League, issued the following joint statement in response to a grand jury’s failure to seek justice for the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.

Perversion of justice is too feeble a term to describe the grand jury’s decision not to file a single criminal charge related to Breonna’s death. It is an affront to Breonna’s memory, and to the millions of Americans who have stood in solidarity with Breonna’s family and marched in the streets in her name.

The barrage of gunfire that endangered Breonna’s neighbors is the very same gunfire that took Breonna’s life. It is incomprehensible to suggest that the risk of injuring neighbors is a crime but the actual killing of an innocent young woman is not.

Breonna’s family has waited six months for justice, only to be slapped in the face by the grand jury’s indifference. Where is the swift hand of the law that took only hours to charge Kenneth Walker with attempted murder for a single gunshot, fired in fear for his and Breonna’s lives? Where do the Black victims of police misconduct go to find that kind of justice?

We are a community in despair but we do not seek revenge, as Attorney General Daniel Cameron so offensively suggested. We seek healing. We seek change. We ask our brothers and sisters to demonstrate with us peacefully in Breonna’s name, and we plead with city authorities and police to allow us space to express our grief without provocation. 

The National Urban League is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities. The National Urban League spearheads the efforts of its 90 local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research and advocacy, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than 2 million people annually nationwide. Visit www.nul.org and follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @NatUrbanLeague.