Biden calls for unity, blasts Trump after Electoral College vote
Reaction and analysis from Fox News contributor Karl Rove on ‘America’s Newsroom.’
The mother of Breonna Taylor penned an open letter to President-elect Joe Biden, calling on him to launch federal investigations into a number of high-profile and police-involved deaths, and to make other criminal justice reforms.
“For many Americans, a vote for you was a vote for Breonna, Jacob Blake, Casey Goodson and so many others who have been failed repeatedly by the criminal justice system under the current administration,” Tamika Palmer wrote. “These victims could not vote for you – so millions of us did so on their behalf.”
The letter was in a full-page, color advertisement in the Washington Post Tuesday, paid for by the progressive Grassroots Law Project.
Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, weeps during a news conference announcing a $12 million civil settlement between the estate of Breonna Taylor and the city of Lousiville, in Louisville, Ken., Sept. 15. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston
Taylor was killed when police fired off 32 rounds into her apartment in March during a botched drug raid.
Palmer called on Biden to name Justice Department appointees who have track records of holding police accountable. She’s asking that the DOJ reopen police violence investigations left incomplete at the end of the Obama administration, and investigate police departments with records of police brutality.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Palmer wrote. “We need your actions to show that you are different than those who pay lip service to our losses while doing nothing to show that our loved ones’ lives mattered.
She said that earlier this year, she spoke with Biden over the phone, which “inspired” her that criminal justice reform is achievable.
“We fought for you,” Palmer concluded. “It is now your turn to fight for us.”
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In September, fired Louisville police officer Brett Hankison became the only one of three cops involved in Taylor’s death to face charges. A grand jury indicted him not for her death, but on three counts of wanton endangerment. He was accused of firing bullets that tore into a neighboring apartment where a child, a pregnant woman and a man were sleeping.
This undated photo provided by Taylor family attorney Sam Aguiar shows Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. (Courtesy of Taylor Family attorney Sam Aguiar via AP, File)
The indictment came 194 days after Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical worker, was shot six times by the officers who entered her home during a narcotics investigation March 13.
Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who said he believed someone was breaking in, were inside. He opened fire, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg.
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Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, also involved in the operation, were not indicted, according to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Prosecutors filed, then dropped, charges of attempted murder of a police officer against Walker.
A search of Taylor's apartment found no drugs.
The city of Louisville eventually settled a lawsuit from Palmer over her daughter’s death for $12 million and agreed to enact police reforms.
Shaun King, who is the executive director of the Grassroots Law Project, tweeted out an image of the full-page ad along with a petition urging Biden to issue more than 50 executive actions without negotiating with Congress.
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Among his demands are “dramatically" expanding "the use of the pardon and commutation power,” and pardoning “all people in federal prison incarcerated on drugs charges.” The petition also calls for commuting existing death sentences to life in prison – or less.
It includes a demand to “dismantle the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency” and make it harder to deport people who are in the country illegally.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
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