Anger? Yes. Frustration? Absolutely. Surprise? Yes and no. The ruling we have all been waiting months for, especially Breonna Taylor’s family, yielded a sentence that was not only insulting but a declaration of the gross negligence of our justice system. Wanton Endangerment charged to one police officer for shooting into other houses and no mention at all of the death of a young woman. Our pleas didn’t matter, our screams didn’t matter, the evidence didn’t matter, the facts didn’t matter. What continues to matter is an unbalanced, unfair judicial system that rewards and encourages black death and ignores black rights. Breonna Taylor’s story has been told by so many different voices and with so much hope for her justice and today that drive for hope came to a screeching halt.

I found this tweet to be really poignant:

I don’t know how many times or ways I can express exhaustion and disappointment. Today is upsetting but today doesn’t mark the first time we have been let down by this corrupt system and it won’t be the last. Today is infuriating, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen a young person’s life violently taken by the police only for the them to be slapped on the wrist or not charged at all. Today is sad, but it’s not the first time. I say this because I just want to keep reiterating that we as black people have had to bear this burden in the shadows for decades because the death of a young unarmed black person happened so frequently. It happens and we are not always extended sympathy or empathy for wanting/needing to grieve their lives. The deaths affect us so deeply because of our intrinsically complex history and ambivalent relationship with this country. Knowing their fates would have been different if the color of their skin was white. We are affected because those brown faces can easily be ours, our mothers, our cousins, our brothers, our sisters. It is harrowing every time to hear these stories of black people just living their lives and still being susceptible to police brutality and death not to mention the cold and callous reactions by individuals who don’t have the capacity to understand the egregious wrongdoing but instead blindly side with the police. Not until recently have our white counterparts become more privy to these incorrigible abuses of power. Police have been terrorizing out communities for decades without punishment. Systemic racism has taken centuries to metastasize and cannot be contained by any ordinary means. Yes, we all need to vote in national and especially local elections and hold our public officials accountable, but it’s also time to start dismantling these white supremacist strongholds that have crept into policy, are upheld socially, and unwittingly enforced by deep personal prejudice. It’s not only time to elect people into office who actually care about people. All people. But it’s also time to rethink it all. The constitution was created in a time when black people weren’t considered people. Our forefathers owned my gd ancestors so forgive me if reciting the pledge of allegiance doesn’t sit right with me when we all know full well who that liberty and justice for all is for.

Breonna did not deserve to have her life taken away by bumbling police who clumsily executed a no knock warrant on the wrong house and haplessly (and seemingly remorselessly) made a fatal mistake. A mistake that cost a young burgeoning woman her life. A mistake no one was even charged for because this country protects a class of citizens who are supposed to serve and protect us but instead are given license to take our lives.

I can only imagine how her family must be feeling right now. They’ve had to relive the trauma and grief every day and have the whole nation watching. Every day reminded of her by strangers. Every day remembering her life and wishing she was still with them. My heart truly goes out to them for losing their precious family member and not getting the justice she deserved.

This isn’t over. That’s why the Louisville police force had to “cancel their vacations” because they knew we wouldn’t take this laying down. The people of Louisville are not alone tonight. The entire country stands with you and are equally outraged at this disgusting injustice. We say her name. We will not forget. And we will continue to fight for Black lives, because we matter. Black Lives Matter. No justice. No peace. Rest in power, Breonna.