After a grand jury indicted one officer involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, which drew national attention, Kentucky Democrat and Senate candidate Amy McGrath and her campaign staff "did not have time" to address the controversy to local reporters, via WPSD Local 6:
“Local 6 tried to ask McGrath her thoughts on the grand jury's decision in the Taylor death investigation. But two people with her campaign, including her speech writer, said McGrath did not have time to comment, not even to answer a single question.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom McGrath seeks to unseat in November, did take time to recognize Taylor’s life tragically being cut short. Leader McConnell called for a fair investigation into the police-involved shooting from day one, and made his confidence in Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s “painstaking pursuit of facts and justice” clear.
“I've spoken recently in recent months about the tragic killing of Breonna Taylor in my hometown of Louisville, the need for justice and the healing work needed ahead for our community. Daniel Cameron conducted the kind of thorough, impartial investigation that justice demands. Yesterday that chapter concluded and the grand jury conducted the handoff to criminal prosecution. I have full confidence in the attorney general's painstaking pursuit of facts and justice,” Leader McConnell said on the Senate floor.
He continued to recognize the importance of peaceful protesting and the dangers of rioting, a distinction that McGrath has refused to draw thus far:
“Many Kentuckians have channeled their continuing grief and anger into peaceful exercise of their first amendment rights. But in Louisville last night we saw more of the lawlessness, riots and violence that has plagued American cities too often this year. Citizens' businesses were vandalized, fires were set in the streets and two officers of the police department were shot and wounded while protecting public safety downtown,” he said. “Peaceful protests honor the memory of Breonna Taylor. Peaceful protests move us towards justice. Smashing windows does not. Setting fires does not. Rioting in the streets does not. And trying to gun down law enforcement officers who are bravely serving their community is the kind of cowardice that must be met with the law.”
Violent protesters have turned Louisville into a war zone following AG Cameron’s announcement, and Leader McConnell is correct: violence does little to honor Taylor’s memory.
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