Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces

by Radley Balko

perhaps the most recent well-known example of Hudson’s collateral damage—and the one that has generated the most outrage—is Breonna Taylor. Just after midnight on March 13, 2020, three plainclothes Louisville narcotics officers forced their way into the home of Taylor, a twenty-six-year-old Black woman who worked as an emergency room technician. As they did, Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker, a legal gun owner with a concealed carry license, awoke and grabbed his gun. Taylor also woke up and walked into the hallway outside her bedroom. According to the police, as the battering ram forced open the door, Walker fired at them, striking one officer in the leg. The police returned with a storm of at least twenty bullets, striking Taylor eight times, killing her. One officer, Brett Hankison, walked back to the sidewalk and began firing indiscriminately into a shaded window. A pregnant woman lived next to Taylor with her young son. Police bullets struck objects in her living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway. One shattered her glass patio door. Another whizzed by inches from the head of a guest in her home.