Stop Calling Breonna Taylor’s Killing a ‘Tragedy’

Using the word tragedy to describe Breonna Taylor’s killing is an insult to her memory. When Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced last week that only one of the police officers involved in Taylor’s death would face criminal charges, he called the Louisville resident’s fate a “tragedy under any circumstances.” This description sounded as if the bullets that killed her in her own apartment had mysteriously fallen from the sky and hadn’t actually come from the guns of Louisville police.

In March, officers executed a “no knock” search warrant at Taylor’s apartment while she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were asleep. In Cameron’s account, Walker mistook police for intruders and fired his gun, officers might suffice if Black people weren’t so frequently the victims of police violence.