On Oct. 30, the attorney for one of the police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor announced that his client had filed a lawsuit against Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.
Jonathan Mattingly was part of a squad of Louisville stormtroopers who raided Taylor and Walker’s apartment in the middle of the night last March 13. The violent raid was a product of a “no knock warrant.” This allowed the cops to enter Taylor’s apartment without announcing themselves. What came next was a brutal scene, which included another officer spray-firing into the couple’s apartment.
When the police gang initially entered the apartment, Kenneth Walker couldn’t tell who was breaking into his apartment. There was no way for him to know anything except for the fact that several armed men were in his home firing weapons and deploying stun grenades.
In self-defense, Walker fired a warning shot with the intent of wounding the invaders. His shot struck Mattingly in the leg. When the exchange ended, the police had fired over 30 times and Breonna Taylor lay dying. Walker fired just once. Only one of these officers was charged with any crime, and that charge was not for Taylor’s murder.
Walker had the presence of mind to do something that the terrorist shock troops would never think to do — fire to wound and not kill. Nevertheless, he was arrested and charged with attempted murder. It took two months for this outrageous charge to be dropped.
In the aftermath of the raid and his girlfriend’s death, Walker filed a $10.5 million lawsuit against the state of Kentucky and the Louisville Police Department.
In response, Mattingly filed an entirely frivolous, insulting, disgraceful and racist lawsuit against Walker. The lawsuit alleges that Walker committed battery, assault and the infliction of emotional distress.
That’s right: the cop accused a victim of racist terror of committing assault and battery. One would think it was Walker who raided Mattingly’s home in the middle of the night!
Mattingly’s suit alleges that Walker’s conduct was “outrageous, intolerable and offends all accepted standards of decency or morality.” This seems ironic in a state whose police officers are trained using quotes from Hitler.
Recently, a high school newspaper uncovered the fact that the Kentucky State Police include the fascist dictator’s quotes to ensure that officers have “a mindset void of emotion” when engaging in violence against the community.
While the officers who murdered Taylor were not Kentucky State Police, this report is indicative of a racist ideology at the core of policing, not only in Kentucky, but the entire United States.
Jonathan Mattingly’s absurd lawsuit should be thrown out of court immediately. Furthermore, all three of the cops involved in the March 13 raid and murder of Breonna Taylor should be arrested and jailed immediately.
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