Cori Bush, the Black Lives Matter activist, issued a call to action via her Twitter account — she says she doesn’t need pity, she needs “feet on the ground.”
“To the people of Louisville, I stand with you. If Breonna Taylor doesn’t get justice, we all need to exercise our rights. We must raise our voices. Care for one another. In this moment, we won’t be silent. Let’s fight their violence with community power. #JusticeforBreonna,” Bush tweeted.
As her followers expressed their condolences following the Kentucky grand jury’s verdict, Bush offered a few words of advisement.
“Nah, I’m not ok. And I don’t need your pity, I need your feet to the ground,” she wrote. “Breonna didn’t get justice.”
Only one officer, Brett Hankison, was charged. Hankison was indicted on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment is a Class D felony, the lowest of four classes of felonies. He will serve at most five years but could be sentenced to as little as a year in prison.
Bush, the Democratic nominee for Missouri’s First District, released the following statement:
“Breonna Taylor received no justice today. Breonna Taylor was shot 6 times. She received no medical attention for more than 20 minutes. We cannot stand while others reduce Breonna’s murder to a one-off “tragedy.” Her death was no accident. Breonna Taylor could have been any one of us. This decision shows us all that, in the eyes of the American criminal justice system, Breonna Taylor’s life did not matter. That the lives of EMTs as first responders matter less than those of police officers.”
Bush later says in the statement, “While we put our boots to the ground in the pursuit of continued justice for Breonna, we will not forget the clear negligence in the handling of this case. To the Mayor of Louisville and Louisville Metro Police Department, you showed us you knew the pain that this decision would cause when you preemptively declared a state of emergency and called in federal backup.
“Any violence brought upon protestors from law enforcement is 100% premeditated and intentional. To every officer who believes that this ruling means that you will not be held to account for your actions, I am bringing the protest from the streets of St. Louis to the halls of Congress to ensure that is not the case. Our demands are not complicated: we just want to live.”
Read the entire statement below.
