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Justice for Omari Cryer

Today, President Biden signed a long-overdue Executive Order on policing. Unfortunately, it came five days too late to protect Omari Cryer, the 25-year old Black man who was gunned down by US Marshals in Louisville, Kentucky’s West End Friday morning. The night before, VICE News aired a damning expose about the corruption, theft and cover-ups taking place within the Louisville Metro Police Department, including new insight into what happened the night Breonna Taylor was murdered, and more unanswered questions.

It’s been a busy news cycle since we learned the results of our local primary races last Tuesday, which I recap here: Win Some Lose Some. Then, the VICE News two-part expose aired Wednesday and Thursday, with Thursday night’s episode being the most eye opening. Then Omari was hunted down and murdered Friday morning. More than a day later, US Marshals issued a weak ass statement. Then, yesterday, the nation went numb when 19 more innocent school children and two of their teachers were massacred by a radicalized 18-year old male who had easier access to automatic weapons than he did mental health support. As we try to process trauma coming at us from all angles, Louisville can’t afford to lose sight of Omari’s case, because there have been too many inconsistencies and unanswered questions coming out of LMPD and their “partners” even BEFORE Friday’s incident, and we demand and deserve answers. And with what many of us have suspected all along being validated by the VICE News reporter, Roberto Ferdman and the brave witnesses who shared their stories, compounded by suspicious behaviors and obviously willfully misleading statements, we deserve an investigation that is not led by members of their own incestuous crime ring. Isn’t this why we have a Civilian Review Board? Make sure they’re included in the investigation process because they may have some insight or suggestions that could benefit the case, and they can report back to the community and let us know how the investigation is progressing.

President Biden’s Executive Order has three key components related to investigating patterns and practices of police misconduct. The first component requires all federal agents to wear activated body cameras while on patrol. The second component raises standards, bans chokeholds and no-knock warrants and to emphasize de-escalation and interviewing to stop another officer. The third component of the executive order “modernizes policing” by calling for a fresh approach to recruit, train, promote and to retrain law enforcement tied to protecting public safety and public trust.

Too bad our country acted too slowly to protect Breonna Taylor from the no-knock raid that ended her life. Too bad this order came five days too late to protect Omari Cryer from being gunned down by 10 federal agents with a possible ties to dirty LMPD cops with nothing more than their word that Omari deserved to die that morning. Without body cam footage, the only witness who can tell Omari’s side of the story is dead. How convenient. Yet, Tweets from Steve Romines, local attorney, indicate LMPD brought in the US Marshals to get around the body cam requirement. Perhaps they knew the ban was coming and seized the limited window to target Omari and send a chilling message by terrorizing the Black community, essentially to “pipe down unless they want it to happen again.” Not much has changed in Louisville since the days of the Wades and the Bradens.

More will be revealed about this case and the inconsistencies between LMPD and US Marshals words and actions, as well as witness testimonies that put two and two together. In the mean time, please check out our Justice for Omari Cryer page with timely and relevant links as they happen. And please share the links and help us keep #AllEyesOnKentucky!

Categories
Issues

Justice for Breonna Taylor

Cover photo is from Aaliyah’s Lost Mind: A no-knock situation, available on Amazon.

UPDATE: The morning after I made post, following the most damning of VICE’s two-part series aired, US Marshals shot and killed a Black man in the back and left his dead body laying in an alley in the hot sun, with no answers for family members, for hours. A similar “power play” was used on our community two years prior when the National Guard was brought in during our peaceful protests and one of them shot and killed local business owner David McAtee, and is too eerily similar to the home invasion that led to Breonna Taylor’s death.
Read our latest blog post, Justice for Omari Cryer.

Louisville’s Greatest Pain: Unresolved Injustice

To date, no one has been held accountable for the murder of Breonna Taylor. Lies, cover-ups, delays and worse have made #JusticeForBreonna seem next to impossible. So whenever there’s a possible “break” in the case, we can’t help but hope THIS will be that piece of evidence that will be undeniable and bring LMPD’s corruption into the national spotlight.

The latest expose from VICE reporter Roberto Ferdman could be that miracle. In addition to asking what happened to the $15,000 that the armed robbers dressed as LMPD officers found at Taylor’s apartment, they are starting to peel the onion on the untold stories that we’ve been hearing and sharing about the Breonna Taylor case, that haven’t made it to the surface. At least not until now.

One of the reasons the truth doesn’t make it to the surface is because of the precision with which police departments, civic leaders, media and “charitable” elites control information. We are grateful for reporters like Roberto who help bring our truth to light and All Eyes On Kentucky, even if only for a brief time. If Kentucky can hold onto the nation’s attention until November, we might have an opportunity to take back our city, state and country, from Trump’s nationalists and white supremacists who proudly and freely tout their ignorance and terrorize our communities. Candidates like Charles Booker have a real chance at replacing traitors like Rand Paul. But the game is rigged and they know how to cleverly deceive, so please, please, don’t take anything you hear or say about Kentucky at face value.

This Could Be the Miracle We’ve Been Waiting For

The first night’s program focused mostly on sex trafficking and included details about the missing $15,000. This part of the narrative was left out, we understand, as part of the $12,000,000 settlement with Breonna’s family. The trauma they have suffered was enough, and the media and public had already tried to portray Breonna as part of a drug ring and not the Black professional woman doing the best she can to get by in a corrupt, rigged and racist society. There was nothing to be gained by allowing her character to be smeared further by even insinuating that she could have been in possession of drug money. The corrupt cops were counting on it. Keeping that MAD secret covered up has been an orchestrated act, conducted by Daniel Cameron, Mitch McConnell, local and state police departments, political candidates and their backers, the Mayor’s secret Kentucky Derby guests, I’m sure, as well as attendees at sex-and-cocaine-fueled after-parties that exist in the world of the wealthy elites. We are not invited, so we can only imagine.

Below are some excerpts:

“In 2008, Hankison was accused of letting a woman off in exchange for oral sex. The case was closed without Hankison being interviewed.”

“If you know the right people, you may not even get investigated.”

VICE NEWS, May 17, 2022

Hankison is the dirty cop who appears to have been calling a lot of the shots when it comes to working the system for personal gain, and one of the three cops involved in that late night raid.

The second part of the two-part series was even better, and already has twice as many views as the first one. #AllEyesOnKentucky!

Watch this TikTok video for a short snip.

@alleyesonkentucky

This ViCE News program shares the untold story of Breonna Taylor and others who report money and drugs were stolen by corrupt LMPD cops during their arrest. Mysteries surround the whereabouts of $15,000 and one of the officers involved, and more. To date, no one has been held accountable for her murder. Watch the entire program here. https://youtu.be/HERShPhJwPg #AllEyesOnKentucky

♬ original sound – G

We cannot let either of these stories disappear into the ether. Complicit defenders of structurally racist systems have a lot of money and power to control the narrative and “explain it away.” We mustn’t let them. Predators like Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul have been preying on Kentucky for far too long. Right now, we have an opportunity — and a responsibility — to take their knees of Kentuckians’ necks. Especially the necks of our Black and brown neighbors in Louisville’s West End.

Won’t you join us in this fight?

To access the links referenced above and dig into more of the untold story of Breonna Taylor, which was the impetus behind today’s post, visit a page I just added to the website under a new ISSUES & DEMANDS section:

Justice for Breonna

Support the progressive candidates who are committed to our ISSUES & DEMANDS by visiting their campaign pages directly.

To sign up for our email list, complete this form. To donate or volunteer to support our efforts to turn attention to the lies, corruption and deceit, email us at moderator@alleyesonkentucky.org.

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