At some point.
One.
That’s how a lot time the US authorities thinks is suitable for the reckless Louisville police officer who helped orchestrate the violent raid that ended Breonna Taylor’s life.
On July 17, the U.S. Division of Justice advisable a one-day sentence for Brett Hankison, the previous cop convicted of violating the civil rights of Taylor, her boyfriend, and their neighbors throughout a lethal no-knock raid in March 2020. Along with the at some point of time served, the DOJ advisable a three-year supervised launch and a $100 high-quality.
At some point, and a $100 high-quality. For unleashing hell inside a Black girl’s dwelling whereas she slept.
At some point, and $100. For spraying ten bullets right into a darkish hallway, via lined home windows and partitions, in the course of the evening.
At some point, and $100. For being a part of a state-sanctioned ambush that resulted in Breonna’s physique bleeding out on the ground.
They usually stated at some point and $100, with their entire bureaucratic chest, that “there is no such thing as a want for a jail sentence to guard the general public… or to offer ‘simply’ punishment or deterrence.”
In a sentencing memo, not solely did the DOJ attorneys argue {that a} jail time period was pointless, in addition they claimed Hankison poses no risk to the general public and that the trauma of prosecution was punishment sufficient. The DOJ stated in its submitting, “In gentle of the three trials of (Hankison) and the media consideration given to every trial, it’s no shock that (he) has suffered from ensuing stress and psychological issues, together with post-traumatic stress dysfunction, nervousness, sleeping difficulties, and associated circumstances.”
Oh, so now Brett Hankison has PTSD?
The person who blindly sprayed 10 of the 32 bullets right into a sleeping girl’s residence, via partitions and home windows, as a result of he was too unprofessional, too reckless, and too detached to human life to test what the hell he was taking pictures at. However he’s the one with trauma? He has suffered sufficient. That’s the argument the DOJ desires to hold their credibility on? That the person who helped orchestrate a state-sanctioned dwelling invasion that ended within the slaughter of a 26-year-old Black girl is now a sufferer of stress?
Breonna Taylor isn’t affected by nervousness. She’s useless. Her physique doesn’t get to heal. Her thoughts doesn’t get to course of what occurred. Her sleep wasn’t interrupted; it was stolen, completely. Her household doesn’t get to carry her hand and say, “It’s over.” They needed to bury her. They needed to sit via lie after lie, trial after trial, whereas prosecutors tripped over themselves attempting to protect the parable of fine cops and unlucky errors.
And but the DOJ desires to middle his sleepless nights? His fragile psychological well being? His delicate white psyche?
The Black individuals who survived that evening—Kenneth Walker, the neighbors, the group—have been traumatized for years.
Kenneth Walker was dragged via the authorized system, known as a legal, and needed to battle to defend himself for daring to guard his dwelling. Breonna’s neighbors had been almost killed. Their properties had been riddled with bullets. And let’s not neglect the thousands and thousands of Black people who watched all of it unfold and had been compelled, as soon as once more, to metabolize a message this nation by no means will get bored with sending: your lives are expendable, your deaths are explainable, and your white killers are all the time redeemable.
You understand who else has sleeping difficulties?
Each Black mom whose baby didn’t make it dwelling. Each Black one that is aware of that justice on this nation is a lottery and a sham. Each protester who’s watched this occur time and again. We’ve all bought nervousness. We’ve all bought PTSD. However no person’s writing memos for us. No one’s asking for leniency on our behalf. No one’s providing sympathy to those left holding grief and rage with nowhere to place it.
However the DOJ rolled out the velvet rope for this man. They stated he’s had sufficient. That being held to account, even just a little bit, was an excessive amount of to bear. That his stress, his struggling, his discomfort deserved extra weight than a Black girl’s dying.
That’s not simply injustice. That’s insult. That’s white supremacy doing precisely what it was designed to do: defend its enforcers, erase its victims, and rewrite the story so the person with the gun finally ends up wanting just like the one who wants some rattling care.
The truth that this memo even made it out of a authorities constructing is proof that the rot runs deep. If Hankison’s trauma is sufficient to keep away from jail, then let’s go empty out each jail crammed with Black people who’ve endured worse—poverty, over-policing, abuse, incarceration itself—and bought no mercy, no memo, no second possibilities.
The DOJ is displaying us, in plain language, who they see as absolutely human. And it’s not Breonna Taylor. It’s not her household. It’s not the Black group. It’s the officers who pull the set off.
With that sentencing memo, the Division of Justice didn’t simply ask for leniency; they put a price ticket on Black life. They usually priced it low cost. They informed each Black individual in America: you will be slaughtered in your sleep, your blood soaking into your mattress, and the system will nonetheless straighten its tie, sip its espresso, and clock out like nothing occurred.
This isn’t only a slap within the face. It’s a coordinated center finger from the so-called justice system, aimed instantly at Breonna’s household, at each protester who ever marched for her, and at each Black one that dares to count on accountability when one in every of our personal is gunned down. That is the state writing a love letter to cops all over the place that claims, “We all know you tousled. However don’t fear, we’ve bought your again.” They usually did it in public. With audacity.
This sentencing memo wasn’t even written by the prosecutors who tried the case. Nope. It was signed by two Trump leftovers, Harmeet Dhillon and Robert Keenan, each of whom have histories of undermining civil rights enforcement. And someway, these folks got the pen and informed to jot down the closing chapter in one of the crucial high-profile police brutality instances of the final decade. They weren’t simply strolling again the prosecution; they had been pissing on the grave of accountability.
As a result of what this memo does is larger than Hankison. It units a precedent. It tells each cop watching that they’ll spray bullets into darkish flats, put entire households in danger, trigger irreversible trauma, and nonetheless come dwelling for dinner. It tells each grieving Black mom that her baby’s life may not be price sufficient for justice. And it tells us that even once we win, once we get a uncommon conviction, when the system appears to bend ever-so-slightly towards justice, there’ll nonetheless be a backroom deal, a authorized loophole, a paper-thin excuse to let the killer stroll.
You understand what they’re actually saying? That our deaths are solely severe if we bleed sufficient. But when we’re simply terrorized, if we simply survive with scars and nightmares, the system shrugs. As a result of to them, proximity to dying isn’t the identical as price. We don’t get the luxurious of being traumatized victims. We’re anticipated to take it, to soak up the violence, to swallow the decision, and wait to be killed once more.
On the finish of the day, the DOJ has informed the world that Breonna Taylor’s killing was, at greatest, a procedural oopsie. A mishap. A regrettable incident with no actual villain. They’ve taken the fad and grief of thousands and thousands and tried to bury it below at some point in jail and a $100 high-quality, which is like getting a parking ticket for taking part in a homicide.
As soon as once more, this racist system is winking at itself within the mirror. Energy is defending energy. And Brett Hankison is being congratulated for upholding the one American custom extra sacred than the flag: killing a Black girl and getting away with it.
Dr. Stacey Patton is an award-winning journalist and writer of “Spare The Youngsters: Why Whupping Youngsters Gained’t Save Black America” and the forthcoming “Strung Up: The Lynching of Black Youngsters In Jim Crow America.” Learn her Substack right here.
SEE ALSO:
DOJ: Brett Hankison Ought to Serve 24-Hour Sentence
Ben Crump Blasts DOJ For Ending Biden-Period Police Reform Plan