Six years after Breonna Taylor’s killing, America is weakening the rules that could have saved her |
The night Breonna Taylor died began quietly.
She had spent the evening at home in Louisville. The 26-year-old was an emergency room technician, someone who worked to prevent other people’s tragedies.
After midnight, police officers arrived at her apartment with a warrant. They moved quickly, forcing open the door.
Inside, Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, did not yet know who had entered the home. (Police claim they knocked and identified themselves; Taylor’s boyfriend, as well as several neighbors, said they didn’t hear it.) In the seconds that followed – confusion, shouting, a single gunshot from Walker, who believed intruders had broken in – officers fired at least 10 shots back. Taylor was struck multiple times. She died there in the hallway.
For a brief moment after Taylor’s death on 13 March 2020, the country seemed to grasp the danger of no-knock warrants and raids, the tactic that allowed police to enter Taylor’s home. Her killing forced Americans to confront something many had never heard of: no-knock warrants, which allow officers to enter homes without announcing themselves, often in the middle of the night, in the belief that warning residents might allow suspects to destroy evidence or escape.
Taylor’s death was an awful reminder of the volatility of such encounters. A door breaks open. Someone inside believes a home invasion is under way. Someone else believes they are executing a lawful warrant. The distance between those two understandings can collapse in seconds, exploding into gunfire.
Governments across the country responded. While no officer was held criminally responsible for Taylor’s death, Louisville banned no-knock warrants entirely. Kentucky, along with other states and municipalities, also imposed limits. The justice department tightened its rules governing when federal agents could seek such warrants.
The logic was straightforward. If the danger revealed in........