Next steps
Hankison Justice, Final post, Post 4 - Was Brett on trial? Or, the narrative? In one of three Hankison trials, the 'preferred narrative' won.
The previous article in this blog series, “The odds are on a new trial for Brett” (12-20-24), was mistaken. Brett’s attorneys filed a motion seeking a new trial on 11-15-24 and it took a LONG time to learn that Judge Jennings would not grant it. Her NO was posted on 7-18-25, the final brief in the docket prior to the Sentencing Hearing on July 21st.
Today, a Courier-Journal Op-Ed by UofL professor Ricky Jones, says “…the evil of American white supremacy lives on and continues to do us real and meaningful harm.”
The post you are reading explains why his opinion is a non-sequitur.
Though Breonna’s team claimed victory following the Hankison sentencing, there is no clear view to the future. “The jury is still out” — An appeal has been filed.
The pessimists held a news conference after the hearing.
Screenshot from C-J video | A character witness for Breonna and her family, Kenneth Walker, stated, “I’m grateful for the small piece of justice that we got—it’s definitely not what I was expecting.” Attorney Ben Crump proclaimed, “Kenny Walker is our hero!” Metro Council member Tammy Hawkins, left, warned us through the Council webpage (before the hearing) that the DOJ was wrong to suggest Brett should not serve time in prison. Lonita Baker, one of Tamika’s attorneys, right, agreed with Hawkins. Baker served as 80th president of the National Bar Association from 2022-’23. White supremacy?
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An optimist will tell those of us who support Brett that we have a lot to celebrate.
Foremost, Trump’s DOJ stood up to the false narrative. Assistant AG for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, appointed a new prosecutor, Robert Keenan, who argued very well on behalf of Brett. The USA Plaintiff and Brett’s Defense team were in agreement that there should be no prison term for Brett— an amazing unity.
Brett’s supporters packed the courtroom and the overflow room. Six character witnesses testified on his behalf including his daughter, his former LMPD supervisor, his former LMPD partner, a fellow LMPD employee, a former president of the FOP Merit Board with whom he served as a board member for about 10 years, and John Mattingly— the victim of Walker’s bullet.
Mattingly, who also testified at Brett’s trials, was interviewed by the media on TV and radio and these conversations tell a very different side of the story. Please share these fantastic TV and podcast interviews!
Brett’s wonderful attorneys have filed an Appeal to challenge Judge Jenning’s decision. It is even possible that Brett will be pardoned by President Trump. Please sign the petition to ask for a pardon!
Let’s focus on the positive, yet be mindful that the troubling outcome of the retrial is evidence of the damage the false narrative has done. A realist will point out:
Despite the excellent reasons why Brett should not serve time in prison, Judge Jennings could not see the forest for the trees. She saw Breonna’s family members and supporters, but not the forest of Louisville Metro police who need to know we trust them to make good decisions. Her opinion lent credence to the ‘preferred narrative’ and did not recognize the forest of Louisville citizens who support the police and still want an answer from Merrick Garland as to how many incidences of excessive force his DOJ investigation found.1
Louisville still has a ‘community’ Consent Decree, though the mayor could have dropped it when Trump dropped the DOJ’s. Louisville’s CD will negatively impact any prospect of rebuilding our police force at a time when we have grave need of a full complement of officers to fight crime. Currently we are down somewhere between 300 and 1200 officers, depending on which insider you ask and what their frame of population reference is.
Across the nation there are evidences of Marxism making inroads and creating mayhem. See this video on a YouTube channel that reports on DEI disasters. And in Minneapolis, police officers spoke out to make plain that the knee-on-neck tactic practiced by Derek Chauvin on George Floyd was part of the MPD training. Evidences were plentiful but the truth did not prevail. Please watch the video.
More sympathy for ‘victims’ garners more money to further the goals of those who want to defund and ‘jury-rig’ the police. Tamika Palmer received $12M from Louisville Metro before the Grand Jury verdict, and the current total on the Justice for Breonna Taylor GoFundMe account set up by her aunt Bianca Austin on behalf of Tamika Palmer has raised almost $7M. Meanwhile, Louisville Metro lost its excess insurance. Palmer’s attorney, Sam Aguiar, was white. A white supremacist?
The purpose for the GoFundMe: ‘We are at a defining moment in American policing history. Clearly, the system that we have now isn’t working for a lot of people in the city of Louisville. We have a window of opportunity for both police and the communities they serve to establish standardized ethical and professional practices within the system.’
We should wonder who wrote that. Were they paid? Was it a white supremacist? A Marxist?
Should Louisville citizens have some say before millions of their tax dollars are awarded to those who claim personal injury— even though that injury resulted from a man who shot at police and then dove behind a door— leaving Breonna unprotected?2
Let’s be optimists and realists, but not pessimists. Let’s stand up to false narratives and support our police! Please share this post.
That case came to an abrupt halt when President Trump dismissed pending federal consent decrees with police departments last May. We await Judge Beaton’s dismissal of the case and believe his order could provide a statement our community will do well to read and understand. As brought out in many previous posts, it was easy to see that Brett was the poster boy for the DOJ CD.
Walker received $2M from Louisville Metro simply because the LMPD failed to state in a hearing that he claimed he did not hear the Announce during the Knock and Announce.
I did not see where I could petition Pres. Trump to pardon Hankinson but I have written Senator Paul asking him to encourage Pres. Trump to pardon Hankinson, in my letter I explained the circumstances that got us to this point.
Do we know who is administering the GoFund Me account? My guess is that is has financed a fleet of luxury cars, Vegas trips, jewelry all in the name of Taylor. Gotta be fraud in large numbers there. I intend to read the rules of Go Fund Me.