Breonna Taylor supporters launch marketing campaign towards GOP gubernatorial nominee in Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Breonna Taylor’s mom endorsed a grassroots marketing campaign Monday geared toward defeating Republican Daniel Cameron’s bid for Kentucky governor, reviving anger over a prison investigation he led that yielded no prices towards any officers for the deadly taking pictures of the Black girl throughout a police raid.

Tamika Palmer plunged into the political fray on what would have been her daughter’s thirtieth birthday. Breonna Taylors loss of life in 2020 spurred nationwide racial justice protests alongside the killing of George Floyd.

Palmer and different activists introduced a marketing campaign to bolster voter registration and turnout towards Cameron’s bid to unseat Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in November.

Taylor’s household and scores of protesters have lengthy blamed Cameron for a scarcity of prison prices towards the officers for Taylor’s loss of life on March 13, 2020. Police opened fireplace into Taylor’s Louisville house after her boyfriend fired a shot at them from a hallway, wounding one of many officers. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, has mentioned he thought he was firing at an intruder.

Kentucky’s first Black lawyer common, Cameron was thrust into the nationwide highlight when his workplace investigated the taking pictures and actions of officers that day.

Cameron has defended the investigation, saying he “followed the law without fear or favor.” Palmer and different activists mentioned Monday that Cameron’s dealing with of the case reveals he’s unqualified to be governor.

“He decided that we didn’t matter,” Palmer informed reporters in a downtown Louisville park that was the epicenter of 2020 protests in Louisville. “He decided that Breonna didn’t deserve justice.”

Lonita Baker, one of many attorneys who represented the Taylor household’s lawsuit towards the town of Louisville and its police division, mentioned Monday that Cameron’s investigation left her offended.

“As a former prosecutor, I knew that there was sufficient evidence to indict the officers responsible,” Baker mentioned. “As a former prosecutor, I knew that Daniel Cameron did not even present the question of whether those officers should be indicted.”

At a extensively seen information convention in September 2020, Cameron introduced the grand jury’s findings, which was to cost one officer with endangerment for firing right into a neighbor’s house. That officer later was acquitted at trial. After the grand jury’s findings have been revealed, Cameron mentioned the grand jurors “agreed” that murder prices weren’t warranted towards the officers. That assertion outraged protesters and prompted some grand jurors to take the extraordinary step of talking publicly to dispute Cameron’s account of the closed proceedings.

In a 2021 interview with The Associated Press, Cameron mentioned his prosecutors had an obligation “to bring forward recommendations on which they think they can prove in front of a jury in a trial. That was what our prosecutors believed was appropriate.”

At Monday’s anti-Cameron occasion, Shameka Parrish-Wright, who’s Black and a former Louisville mayoral candidate, mentioned she “would love to see a Black man as governor, but not Daniel Cameron.”

“He lost that when he denied Breonna Taylor justice,” she mentioned. “He lost that when he didn’t appoint a special prosecutor. He lost that when he failed to properly inform the grand jury.”

Activists mentioned they plan to open places of work in Louisville and one other in Lexington – Kentucky’s two largest cities – to canvass neighborhoods and function cellphone banks in a mobilization towards Cameron. In 2019, Beshear carried the counties containing these two cities by about 135,000 votes in only defeating then-Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.

Cameron, who’s carefully aligned with former President Donald Trump, says Taylor’s loss of life was a tragedy. In marketing campaign speeches, Cameron has turned protests over the case into an enchantment for assist from Republican voters, portraying it for instance of his steadfastness within the face of strain. He speaks a few July 2020 demonstration by protesters on his entrance garden that led to dozens of arrests.

“My obligation is to follow the law, no matter what – even when protestors show up on my lawn,” Cameron mentioned in a press release Monday.

In 2020, three jurors on the 12-member grand jury got here ahead to say Cameron’s group restricted their scope and misled them about what prices they might think about towards the officers. Beshear, who preceded Cameron as lawyer common, factors to that growth in criticizing Cameron’s dealing with of the case.

“First time I’ve ever heard of it happening, grand jurors come forward and accuse the top prosecutor of lying,” Beshear mentioned in a current interview with the AP. “Of lying about what they were told, lying about what they were shown and lying about what they could decide.”

Kentucky state Rep. Kevin Bratcher, a Republican from Louisville, has staunchly defended Cameron’s dealing with of the case.