Breonna Taylor’s mother: ‘People don’t hear these stories about Black women’
Tamika Palmer is continuing to fight for her daughter, Breonna Taylor, and all Black women who have been killed by police.
“I have Black daughters, and sometimes I think that we don’t think that it can happen to them, because so many times they’re swept under the rug,†Palmer told “Good Morning America.â€
“People don’t hear these stories about these Black women, but I’m now learning that I have a higher position in this fight, and whatever I have to do to remain in it is what I’m going to do, because it should never happen to another Black daughter, son — another Black person, period.â€
Palmer, Wanda Cooper-Jones, Michelle Kenney, Allison Jean, Samaria Rice, Sybrina Fulton and Gwen Carr — all of whom have lost children to racial violence — recently spoke with ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts for Monday’s “Good Morning America†segment “Their Painful Bond: Black Mothers Speak Out Together on Unimaginable Loss.â€
They are the mothers of Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Antwon Rose, Botham Jean, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, respectively.
“I’m new here, but I’m ready, and I’m here, and I’m not leaving because I still have another daughter, and this cannot happen again,†Palmer continued.
Palmer is pursuing justice for Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician who was shot and killed by Louisville police carrying out a “no-knock†search warrant at her Kentucky home.
Since Taylor’s killing in March, “no-knock†warrants have been banned in Louisville, but the officers involved in Taylor’s shooting — Jon Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove — have not been charged. Only Hankison has been fired by the Louisville Metro Police Department.
“It gives me comfort for other families. It doesn’t give me any comfort for what happened to Breonna,†Palmer said of the recent ban on “no-knock†warrants. “These people are still being paid. These people are walking around as if they did nothing wrong. So for me, no. It’s no comfort. But I’m definitely grateful that hopefully this doesn’t happen to another family.â€
A police officer involved in the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., was fired on Tuesday.
In addition to the interview with Roberts, ABC also published personal essays from each of the mothers celebrating their children’s lives and advocating for change to prevent more deaths. Arbery’s mother, Cooper-Jones, is calling for Georgia to establish a hate-crime law after Gregory and Travis McMichael, a white father and son, armed themselves and attacked her 25-year-old son while he was out on a jog.
Three men — the McMichaels and William “Roddie†Bryan Jr. — have been indicted on murder charges in the killing of Arbery.
“I think that Ahmaud’s death was not in vain, but when the n-word was used it let the world know that racism, prejudice, all those things exist,†Cooper-Jones said in her essay. “It exists right in our neighborhood. And we as the people need to have conversations with ourselves to determine what part we play in order to see things change. ...
“We need this law to protect us. Now that this bill is passed, people will think twice on how they take lives because they’ll now be held highly accountable for the decisions they make.â€
The complete essays of Cooper-Jones, Palmer, Fulton, Kenney, Jean, Rice and Carr can be found on the “Good Morning America†website.
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