‘I have lost my hope’: Lawmakers, activists talk social justice issues after Breonna Taylor decision

Image via AP.

“I just couldn’t come on and put on a smile today,” social justice advocate Leontyne D. Brown said Friday. “I tried. I wanted to.”

Instead, Brown fought back tears as she reacted to Wednesday’s Kentucky grand jury decision in Breonna Taylor‘s death. Brown spoke Friday during the fourth in a series of panel discussions on racial justice led by U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, state Sen. Lori Berman and Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay.

On Wednesday, the Kentucky grand jury indicted one officer involved in Taylor’s shooting death. He was not charged in her death, however, but rather for errantly shooting into a neighbor’s apartment. Officers shot Taylor dead after her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired at them. Walker says police did not identify themselves prior to entering the apartment.

“We owe it to the victims and their families to shed light on the injustice,” Berman said.

“This is why there is civil unrest. This is why Americans are marching and yearning for true restorative justice. We’re not being heard by our institutions and justice isn’t being served.”

“I look forward to listening to each of you,” Commissioner McKinlay added.

“My job today is to listen and to learn how to be a better ally and to make sure that you all know we’ve got to fight the good fight and live up to the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, live up to the legacy of John Lewis.”

Brown was among the most passionate speakers Wednesday as she detailed her years of activism following Trayvon Martin‘s death in 2012.

“For the first time since 2012, I have lost my hope in this country,” Brown said, fighting back tears.

“I’m sorry. I lost my hope in the work that I thought that I was doing, the change that I thought this work was making, because this country told me on Wednesday that no matter what I do — the boards that I get on, the marches that I’m a part of, the conversations that I have across social media to almost 20,000 people on a daily basis — that this country would not protect people that look like me. In one swipe of a pen, they erased the life and the death of this girl.”

That grand jury decision has triggered another round of street protests throughout the country. Those marches in recent months have prompted Gov. Ron DeSantis to push a bill punishing violent protesters and block grant money from going to local governments who cut police budgets.

“I think he thinks he’s King DeSantis,” Frankel argued. “He’s not even going to allow us to enforce our face mask ordinance,” she added, referencing the Governor’s announcement Friday that the state would begin blocking local governments from collecting fines gathered from mask mandate enforcement.

“Instead of calling for legislation to address the pandemic, the unemployment crisis, the economic crisis or even racial injustice, our Governor is asking the Legislature to make it more difficult for protesters,” Berman said Friday.

“The legislation proposal he unveiled this week is a problem in search of a solution. Nowhere in Florida do we see rioting, looting, violent protests. Our cities aren’t burning. This measure really only serves two purposes: to prey on the fears of the voters and mold a political narrative that suppresses our voice and why we march.”

While recent protests have mostly been peaceful, gatherings earlier this year in Florida did turn to violence and looting at times.

Delsa Bush, director of security for Palm Beach State College, also spoke during Friday’s virtual meeting and pushed back against proposals to defund the police.

“They are the first responders that will come to your rescue when nobody else will and nobody else is expected to,” Bush said. “That is their job. They are not going to run from the fight. They are going to run to the fight. So let’s not defund our police, not at this time. Let’s reform our police departments throughout this particular nation.”

Bush instead argued for additional funding to train officers to cut down on violent altercations.

“We need that diversity training. We need that cultural sensitivity training and anything else that we can put into the mix that will change this process of this warrior mentality that it appears that law enforcement officers here in the United States have.”

Palm Beach County Administrator Verdenia Baker also joined the conversation and advocated for increased diversity in government institutions. She said her office has pushed to increase diversity among police officers and firefighters, as well as study the issue within the public and private workforce.

“We all know that until we have diversity, equity and inclusion in all levels of government and all businesses, that we’re still going to always have inequity,” Baker said.

“You have to have everybody at the table to speak to the issues. If you have not necessarily lived it or experienced it through friends, people close to you, it’s a little different.”

While Brown, the social justice advocate, expressed her disappointment with the Taylor decision, she also referenced her resolve following other examples of Black people being shot and killed by police officers.

“I know that just like in all of those other instances, I’m going to dust off my shoulders and I’m going to get back to work, because what else are we going to do?” Brown said.

“But it’s been hard these last couple of days because it just does not feel like it’s working. And we have all heard the saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. And I don’t consider myself to be insane, but I do know that my heart is broken today.”