A Tree Fell; Did Anybody Hear It?

There is an old adage that asks, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound? That question is a good one to ask in what I am going to analyze. It involves the acquittal of a Louisville police officer last week by a Kentucky jury on a charge of 3 counts of wanton endangerment while serving a narcotics search warrant. The jury verdict last week did not get the national news coverage that the initial story did. If that doesn’t ring a bell, then maybe the name Breonna Taylor will. She was killed after her thug boyfriend fired shots through a door to serve a search warrant. Now that I have your attention, I’ll walk you thru this.

Officer Brett Hankison was the only officer charged in the case that sparked nationwide riots, something that has become the automatic default for politically motivated cop haters before waiting for facts to be determined and released. Just like incidents going all the way back to Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 when Officer Darren Wilson defended his life against thug Mike Brown who was trying to disarm him, this has become standard operating following officer uses of force. You remember the “hands up, don’t shoot” lie that was spawned out of that incident? Hankison’s name is hardly known, but Breonna Taylor’s name has become a nationwide symbol for the lie constructed about not only police use of force, but for banning no-knock search warrants. You may have seen recent legal-based columns by me on the issue of no-knock search warrants that separate fact from fiction. The Louisville police incident has been labeled in cop-hating media as a no-knock incident even though the police have said that they did knock. There is no evidence to suggest that they did not knock before being fired upon. One of the officers on the entry team was struck by gunfire that followed a knock on the door. That fact is rarely mentioned in any news accounts.

The reporting of this incident has been so one-sided that it makes clear the anti-police bias in liberal media coverage of these incidents. In one story from USnews.com, Taylor’s name was mentioned 10 times. In another short two-page column from Yahoo News, Taylor’s name was mentioned four times. Both stories pointed out the race of the officer (white) and of Taylor (black). This is done to inflame the situation and make it a race issue. That is more explosive.

In neither column was the creep who shot through the door, wounding an officer, mentioned in post acquittal news accounts. In one of the columns I mentioned, he was only referred to as “Taylor’s new boyfriend.” His name is Kenneth Walker. He has a criminal history. Walker said he wouldn’t have fired through the door if he had known it was police. Seriously? So, it is reasonable to fire through a door because whoever knocked didn’t answer? What if had been a parcel delivery driver? What if the person knocking didn’t hear you ask the question not to mention that police serving a search warrant wouldn’t want to give up the element of surprise, something that could reasonably endanger their lives? Narcotics search warrants are a high-risk activity and drug dealers are often armed. By the way, Walker admitted that officers knocked on the door. But let’s not let facts get in the way of a good story.

Officer Hankison took the stand in his own defense and testified in part that he did absolutely nothing wrong. I agree wholeheartedly. Any reasonable officer would have returned fire here. Hankison returned fire in the direction of the sound of shots being fired at officers in the dark. Officers train in nighttime shooting with limited or no visibility. Hell yes it can be risky. Several shots ended up going through walls into adjacent apartments. There is no evidence to suggest that Hankison knew that there were other apartments behind the one that the shots came from. That shots went into another nearby residence is the fault of Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. By the way, he should have been charged with attempted murder of police officers. He faced no such scrutiny. When officers are fired upon

unprovoked, they most certainly are legally entitled to use force to defend themselves. No one in those apartments was struck by the shots. Twenty-six people testified against Hankison, arguing that he endangered their lives by firing. None of them mentioned that they learned that Walker fired at police first and that it was his action that started this. No. Let’s excuse thug Walker’s behavior and blame everything on police. That is what I call cultural rot and dysfunction.

It is this phenomenon that causes much of the black-on-black violence in ghettos all across America. Witnesses fail to come forward when thousands of black victims are shot or murdered by a black perpetrator, and you don’t hear anything about how black lives matter. But let a cop use justifiable force, something that occurs in rare instances anyway against a black suspect, and riots with looting and arson occur. And here is another thing to ponder. Breonna Taylor dying in this incident is tragic. She seemed by all accounts to be a decent person. Her judgment, however, in choosing who to date comes into question. Questionable lifestyle choices have consequences. Let this be a lesson. With all the information available on the internet to do a background search, people should take the time to research people before dating them … but I digress.

The issue of what justice looks like came into play when after Hankison’s acquittal, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer issued a statement that said, “Today’s decision adds to the frustration and anger of many over the inability to find more accountability for the tragic events of March 13, 2020. I know for many, justice has still not been achieved.“ What the hell is he talking about? He is insinuating that justice only occurs when police officers are railroaded with a witch-hunt indictment and then found guilty no matter that no evidence is offered to prove their guilt. Let me remind this blowhard virtue signaling two-bit politician that justice occurs when due process takes place. Taylor and her family got due process through a criminal trial, not to mention a $12 million civil suit settlement. That’s justice. The jury in this case only needed three hours to find a not guilty verdict. That says something in and of itself. In our system of jurisprudence, people are entitled to due process. They are not entitled to a particular outcome they desire. That is called mob justice.

So, let’s take a look at the damage done to officers. Hankison and several other officers were prematurely fired. Careers were lost all in a rush to judgment done to appease the cop-hating mob. Their lives and those of their families have been ruined permanently. How do we put that toothpaste back in the tube? That is the only injustice that occurred here, Mayor Fischer. Serving police officers up as sacrificial lambs in these incidents when they are doing what they have been trained to do and for what they took an oath to do has got to stop. It will only stop when police executives grow a backbone and stand up to mayors and the local media and support the men and women they send into harm’s way every day to serve and protect.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com