Louisville, Mayor Greg Fischer has declared racism in his city a public health crisis, following the police killing of unarmed Black woman, Breonna Taylor.
Fischer signed an executive order targeting seven racial injustice areas — public safety, children and families, employment, Black wealth, housing, health and voting.
“There is no going, quote, ‘back to normal,'” the mayor said in a virtual speech. “The Louisville that we were in March wasn’t good enough, wasn’t equitable enough. Higher standards for equity must be the goal for every aspect of life in our city.”
Taylor’s death sparked protests across the city and the country. Activists rallied for her killers to face justice — but justice is yet to rear its head.
Former Lousiville officer Brett Hankison was the only officer who faced any charges over the incident on March 13, which resulted in Taylor’s fatal shooting.
Fischer went on to add: “Breonna’s tragic death has made our city a focal point for America’s reckoning of racial justice. The last few months have been painful for us as a community and for many of us personally. The status quo is not working nor is it acceptable. As mayor and just as an American and a human being, racism sickens me.”
In October, the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office has teamed up with Hankison to argue to keep investigative materials from being released to the public. The Louisville Courier-Journal requested discovery materials to be filed as part of the court’s public record, citing that the public has a right to know how the office handled the case.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the judicial system, in some sense, is on trial here,” an attorney representing the Courier-Journal, Michael Abate, argued in court per CNN. “The public has a right and need to see, not only the evidence in this case, but how the attorney general and the commonwealth have handled this case.”
Cameron is still fighting to keep the materials under wraps.
