Lexington Black faith leaders slam Cameron, renew calls to ban no-knock warrants
Lexington Black faith leaders Tuesday asked Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine to investigate the three police officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s death and slammed Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron for failing to present grand jury evidence against the trio.
After Cameron’s case review, the grand jury didn’t directly indict anyone in Taylor’s March killing.
“Mr. Cameron callously took care to point out that the charge that was brought stemmed from gunshots that went into a wall, rather than for the gunshots that took the life of an innocent black woman,” said Rev. Clark Williams of Shiloh Baptist Church. “So one might say that a wall got more justice than Breonna Taylor.”
Williams and the coalition of Black faith leaders called on Wine’s office to examine Taylor’s death.
“It appears that Kentucky Attorney General Cameron decided to be the detective, judge and jury,” Williams said.
Former Louisville Metro Police officer Brett Hankison was the only officer charged after Taylor was killed while a no-knock warrant was served at her apartment. Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into a neighboring apartment.
The other two officers — Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove — who fired weapons were not charged. Cameron admitted he didn’t seek grand jury indictments against the officers in connection to Taylor’s death.
Members of the Black clergy Tuesday renewed calls to ban the use of no-knock warrants in Lexington. Louisville banned the practice earlier this summer, not long after Taylor’s death. Mayor Linda Gorton has issued a temporary moratorium. It’s time the city followed Louisville’s lead, the religious leaders said Thursday.
The group of clergy had issued demands in June asking for the city, schools and the University of Kentucky to address a host of issues, including more oversight of the police and increasing economic opportunities for Lexington’s Black community, which is 15 percent
of the population.
On Tuesday, the group applauded the city’s August announcement that all Lexington police officers will have body cameras by January 2021.
But the city has to make sure police use and turn those body cameras on, Williams said. In 2019, there were 329 activation failures. Williams also said the group still wants an independent citizen review of police disciplinary matters, which is essential to restore trust, he said.
The group wants the city of Lexington, Fayette County Public Schools and UK to increase minority-owned business spending. The city reported earlier this year that 20 percent of its contracts went to minority-owned businesses. The majority of those contracts went to white business owners — women or veterans. Only 1 percent in 2019 went to black-owned businesses, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported earlier this year.
The group wants the city, UK and the school system to provide a breakdown of all minority contracts by race or ethnicity for the past four years.
About 5 percent of UK’s spending on outside businesses went to minority-owned companies — significantly less than the university’s goal of 10 percent. UK said in July it cannot break down its minority contracts by race or ethnicity. University officials have since pledged to increase minority-owned business contracting.
Rev. C.B. Akins of First Baptist Church Bracktown said the university has to do better.
“UK can break out the numbers,” Aikens said. “They can desegregate anything else. They know how many championships they’ve won.”
Commerce Lexington has worked with Black leaders, the city, the school system and the university to bring all the groups to the table to discuss how to increase spending with racial minority business owners. The group wants each government agency to set a minimum goal or 15 percent of all spending going to Black-owned businesses.
Williams also urged the community to vote.
“It is without a doubt that we are in the midst of the most important election that we have had in this country since the Civil War,” Williams said. “Therefore, the Black Faith Leaders of Lexington and vicinity are calling on everyone to vote by Tuesday Nov. 3.”
Gorton appointed the Mayor’s Commission on Racial Justice and Equality earlier this year to look at a host of issues regarding racial inequality including housing, health care, education and law enforcement. That commission, which is expected to address some of the topics raised by Black faith leaders, is expected to release its final recommendations later this month.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 3:10 PM.
CORRECTION: In the original version of this story, Rev. C.B. Akins name was misspelled.
