Felony charges dismissed against ex-officers charged in Breonna Taylor raid

https://www.newsweek.com/louisville-breonna-taylor-raid-death-police-charges-dismissed-1943677

472 points · 46 comments · view on lemmy.world

46 Comments

BertramDitore@lemmy.world · 290 pts · 1y (10 replies)

Judge Simpson said that "there is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor's death."

What?! How does that make any sense? If the cops didn’t illegally enter her apartment without a warrant, Breonna would still be alive today. Cause meet effect. How is that not a direct link?

homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 152 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Exactly. The fuck.

Judge was appointed by Reagan

ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one · 59 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Ol' Rotten Ronnie fucking the world from beyond the grave.

Lianodel@ttrpg.network · 16 pts · 1y

Yet again.

homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y

Well . . .

2pt_perversion@lemmy.world · 57 pts · 1y

[ removed ]

ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works · 26 pts · 1y (4 replies)

I think the legal principle here is that of a superseding cause. The case law on this matter is really complex and I, as someone who is NOT a lawyer, cannot comment on the merit of the judge's decision. However, the case described in that Wikipedia article is illustrative:

if a defendant had carelessly spilled gasoline near a pile of cigarette butts in an alley behind a bar, the fact that a bar patron later carelessly threw a cigarette butt into the gasoline would be deemed a foreseeable intervening cause, and would not absolve the defendant of tort liability. However, if the bar patron intentionally threw the cigarette butt into the gasoline because he wanted to see it ignite, this intentional act would likely be deemed unforeseeable, and therefore superseding.

grue@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 1y

The case law on this matter is really complex and I, as someone who is NOT a lawyer, cannot comment on the merit of the judge’s decision.

What are you talking about? Of course you can! Any reasonable person can see that this decision is bullshit, nuances of superseding cause be damned.

BertramDitore@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Wow that hurt my head. I read the rest of the Wikipedia page and I think I understand, but damn, I’ll need to read the judge’s full opinion to see just how creatively he applied that principle. Tort law is not for me.

MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1y

Tort law is essentially legal sorcery

catloaf@lemm.ee · 5 pts · 1y

Sounds like that only reduces it to wilful negligence, not malice. There's still significant liability there.

Also, I'm pretty sure we're talking about the officers that wrote up the warrant request, not the ones actually on scene who did the shooting.

jonne@infosec.pub · 150 pts · 1y (5 replies)

In the ruling, Judge Simpson said that Taylor's cause of death was due to a gunshot fired by her boyfriend at the police and not a bad warrant.

Jesus Christ

Ragdoll_X@lemmy.world · 48 pts · 1y (3 replies)

I guess if you're a hostage cops can just kill you and blame the criminal then

alienzx@feddit.nl · 34 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Actually yes. That's well established case law.

Ragdoll_X@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y

society

jonne@infosec.pub · 13 pts · 1y

That's what the IDF does.

some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org · 19 pts · 1y

Travesty of our bullshit system.

faltryka@lemmy.world · 107 pts · 1y (8 replies)

That’s an awfully misleading situation. They state that her boyfriend’s gunshot caused her death, which I think most people would reasonably interpret to mean that her boyfriend shot her in the moment, but what they really mean is that if he hadn’t opened fire on police officers entering their home without prior warning, they wouldn’t have returned fire and killed her.

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world · 70 pts · 1y

It also sounds like precedent to excuse cops murdering children.

"Their parents killed them by opening fire at the intruders they didn't know were cops with the gun they legally have to protect their family."

iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works · 58 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Which is not even a sure thing. Black people have been shot for even less than sleep, somehow.

Bonifratz@lemm.ee · 16 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Yup, like the time they broke into a house and shot the girl sleeping on the sofa with her grandma.

qevlarr@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y (1 reply)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Aiyana_Jones

Bonifratz@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 1y

Thanks for the link, I was too lazy to look for it. Note that all charges were dropped in that case. I.e. throwing a flash grenade into an apartment, then breaking in and shooting a 7 y/o sleeping in her grandma's arms is A-OK in the US.

ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 1y (1 reply)

~~Who is saying that and where?~~

Edit: Never mind, I found it. Note that this is the newspaper's phrasing. Apparently what the judge actually wrote is more technical and less misleading:

In his ruling, Judge Simpson wrote that the gunshot fired by Walker "became the proximate, or legal, cause of Taylor's death."

almar_quigley@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 1y

It’s still the same concept. The exciting incident is breaking and entering by the cops. Judge is still stating them entering illegally is not the cause which it is.

ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y

They state that her boyfriend’s gunshot caused her death, which I think most people would reasonably interpret to mean that her boyfriend shot her in the moment, but what they really mean is that if he hadn’t opened fire on police officers entering their home without prior warning, they wouldn’t have returned fire and killed her.

Holy shit that's beyond fucked. How can a judge rule that?

edit: Oh nvm, I just saw who appointed that judge, wow.

sgibson5150@slrpnk.net · 79 pts · 1y (1 reply)

This commando raid bullshit has got to stop. How many have died since Breonna? How many more will die? Fucking pigs.

BossDj@lemm.ee · 29 pts · 1y

Seriously. Dude was gonna leave the house at some point.

They just feel like as alpha badasses when they kick in a door and scream orders of submission. Fucking cowards

aloeTGL@lemmy.world · 76 pts · 1y

Looks like corruption wins again …. I’m tired boss.

2ugly2live@lemmy.world · 67 pts · 1y

They waited nice and long to do this so people wouldn't notice because her murder was discussed a lot.

What fuckers.

hddsx@lemmy.ca · 56 pts · 1y

That’s amazing. The bullet that struck the victim was not the cause of death, but the bullet before?

So if an LAPD officer goes to raid someone’s home, and a gangster kills a bystander, the officer is responsible? If he hadn’t gone out for the raid, the gangster would not have fired the weapon?

Wait but if the officers in Taylor’ case didn’t show up to the door, her boyfriend wouldn’t have fired the bullet. So it’s the police fault

TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com · 34 pts · 1y (1 reply)

This is one of those things that I would hope Harris could speak to right now.

My expectations are unrealistic, though.

OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml · 15 pts · 1y

Presidential candidates don't like doing risky moves

raynethackery@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 1y (1 reply)

What ever happened to felony murder?

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 1y

Bastards in blue exempted.

Korne127@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Is there any way this can get overturned?

themeatbridge@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 1y

No. But they are still on trial for falsifying documentation and civil rights violations.

todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee · 12 pts · 1y (1 reply)

[ removed ]

ohellidk@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 1y

Hell yeah

acosmichippo@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y

"She wasn't clear enough on policies"

"I still don't feel like she's ready"

yeah yeah yeah bro whatever.

qevlarr@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y

Charges dismissed does not mean he was found not guilty. They could charge him again. Given what we know, the cops fucked this up. No-knock raids are a death sentence.

Doorbook@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y (2 replies)

I read this and I was not surprise because since October they have been blaming Hamas for the genocide in Gaza, and it seems this form of gaslighting is engrave in USA politics.

randon31415@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Hamas: "Israel didn't announce who they were, so I assumed they were intruders and opened fire. Then they shot back and killed my civilians!"

Doorbook@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

"We didn't do anything to you this is hamas fault" Blinken, USA

jordanlund@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y

Hate to say it, but I called it back when this happened. Shooting at the cops NEVER gets you an expected outcome.

That being said, the no-knock warrant was the reason the cops got shot at.

The bad warrant was the reason for the no-knock raid.

The judge only stopped looking for root cause at step 1.

qevlarr@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y

If anyone wants to know what happened, here's an excellent video by NYT with fancy animations: https://youtu.be/lDaNU7yDnsc

MediaBiasFactChecker@lemmy.world · -12 pts · 1y (1 reply)

::: spoiler Newsweek - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report) Information for Newsweek:

MBFC: Right-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Mostly Factual - United States of America
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qevlarr@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

Fuck off. Remove this bot