It’s been six years since police wrongfully killed Breonna Taylor in her Louisville apartment due to a no-knock warrant. After her death, the city banned no-knock warrants. The federal government also put limits on these deadly warrants, but the Trump administration is going under the radar to remove them. Here’s what you need to know.
Early in March, the Trump Administration quietly reversed those federal limits in favor of allowing “law enforcement to carry out their duties to the fullest extent permitted by law,” reinforcing the lie that the police are hindered by restrictions meant to save civilian lives.
Even though no-knock raids never completely disappeared, this is a rollback on the safeguards put in place after Taylor’s death. And it was done without explanation, likely in hopes that the public wouldn’t notice.
For years, experts have documented that police don’t use the SWAT-style raids for truly dangerous situations like terrorist attacks. Instead, they use no-knock raids to terrorize residents in predominantly Black neighborhoods. In Taylor’s case, the cops weren’t even looking for her or her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. No-knock warrants have been killing our people for decades. In 1969, Chicago police burst into the home of Fred Hampton, the 21-year-old leader of the Black Panther Party and murdered him while he slept.
Reforms don’t save Black lives, especially in a system that has always used cops to kill, incarcerate, AND force us from our homes. Taylor deserved to live, and we all deserve a better future–without police.