I mean, the two separate issues compound one another – it makes it worse to corruptly sic the cops on people if you know the cops to be enthusiastic, unaccountable killers – but real estate scams are not what cause cops to behave like this. The exact same story could just as easily have happened in a city with a clean, progressive government, if the call had come from a vindictive neighbor or a genuine mistake. As far as the current conversation about police goes, I think that is the point.
I’m not saying local government corruption should be dismissed, or that it’s exclusive to one city. But $1 says that whenever mainstream news mentions Breonna Taylor from now on, they’ll use this aspect as an excuse to imply police violence is about Louisville, or property developers, or anything but cops themselves. But it is about cops themselves. They’re why this is a national story about murder, instead of a local story about crooked government.
i think there’s a language problem when we blame cops. it’s the way we hire and train, the way we use the cops. yes, there are plenty of bad cops, and more than enough cops willing to stand by and watch the bad cops… but ultimately, simply getting rid of bad cops won’t fix anything. we’ll just breed more bad cops again to take their place.
the problem is policing. we need people to investigate crimes, we may need people to ticket people who break speed limits or to stop people from driving drunk, we may need surveillance of suspects… but we don’t need this system of policing to do those jobs.
Cops & sheriffs have been used as the “business end” of policies designed to remove PoC from their duly owned property for over a century.
Its well within a reasonable assumption that such “collaboration” was at work aligning the mechnisms of power, policing & racism leading to Ms Taylor’s murder.
The disturbing part is persons (cops) who willing execute anyone cause it was their work detail. i.e. not their responsibility just their function and they are fine with that.
The Jefferson County property value administrator’s website shows after police arrested Glover the second time, the city moved to purchase the property on Elliott Avenue.
The property’s deed — signed June 5, which would have been Taylor’s 27th birthday — shows Louisville and Jefferson County Landbank Authority bought the home for $1 in June.
The fair market value of the home, however, was $17,160, according to the PVA.
