Breonna Taylor\Gentrification]
Taylor’s lawyers say the targeting of Breonna Taylor’s home had little to do with it being a drug house and everything to do with the city’s multi-million dollar “Vision Russell” development plan.
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Was the death of Breonna Taylor connected to a city plan to gentrify her neighborhood?
As crazy as that idea may seem, this assertion is being made by lawyers for Taylor’s family. Several news reports are now talking about Lousiville Mayor Greg Fischer and the city’s gentrification “Vision Russell” plan–which apparently includes the area where Taylor was murdered in her sleep on March 13.
Taylor’s lawyers say the targeting of Breonna Taylor’s home had little to do with it being a drug house and everything to do with the city’s multi-million dollar “Vision Russell” development plan.
Taylor’s lawyers released the following statement:
“Connecting the dots, it’s clear that these officers should never have been at Breonna Taylor’s home in the first place, and that they invaded the residence with no probable cause. The officers who robbed Breonna of her life — and Tamika Palmer of her daughter — exhibited outrageous, reckless, willful, wanton and unlawful conduct. As a consequence, the city lost one of its most precious essential frontline workers, who risked her life daily to save her fellow residents in a pandemic. This is a grievous offense against Breonna, her family, and the greater Louisville community. ”
A spokesperson for Mayor Fischer, Jean Porter, called the allegations “outrageous” and “without foundation or supporting facts.”
“They are insulting to the neighborhood members of the Vision Russell initiative and all the people involved in the years of work being done to revitalize the neighborhoods of west Louisville,” said Porter. “The Mayor is absolutely committed to that work, as evidenced by the city’s work to support $1 billion in capital projects there over the past few years, including a new YMCA, the city’s foundational $10 million grant to the Louisville Urban League’s Sports and Learning Complex, the Cedar Street housing development, new businesses, down payment home ownership assistance, and of course, the remaking of the large Beecher Terrace initiative.”
However, Taylor’s lawyers allege in court documents filed Sunday, in Jefferson Circuit Court, that a police squad named Place-Based Investigations had “deliberately misled” drug detectives to go to the home on Elliot Avenue.
In amended court documents, the lawyers state: “Breonna’s home should never have had police there in the first place. When the layers are peeled back, the origin of Breonna’s home being raided by police starts with a political need to clear out a street for a large real estate development project and finishes with a newly formed, rogue police unit violating all levels of policy, protocol, and policing standards.”
