“The former head of an organization for tactical officers has endorsed an effort by the prominent police reform and racial justice group Campaign Zero to end the type of no-knock warrant raid that killed Breonna Taylor. Mark Lomax, the former executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, said it’s time to take a “serious look” at “ending the dangerous practice of no-knock warrants and raids,” outside of extenuating circumstances. “The ends may not always justify the means when it comes to the service of search warrants and especially no-knock raids,” Lomax said in a statement issued through the Black Lives Matter-associated group Campaign Zero, which launched its #EndAllNoKnocks initiative on Monday. Lomax said it would be tough to reform what he called one of the most intrusive acts in policing, but it’s time to take a look at techniques and practices that “have been shown to have caused disproportionate harm to communities of color for years.” The March killing of 26-year-old Taylor during a raid by the Louisville, Kentucky, police should not be in vain, he said. Brandon Bell via Getty Images A new Campaign Zero effort follows the death of Breonna Taylor, who was memorialized at this site in front of Louisville Metro Hall. “Our law enforcement and government leaders need to engage and step up and fight against discriminatory and unsafe tactics that not only disproportionately put the lives of Black and Brown Americans at risk –– but also the lives of our police officers,” Lomax said. “The time is now. It is time to adopt meaningful legislation and policies that will work for all of us, our communities, and our police officers.” Lomax, in an interview with HuffPost, explained that he thinks there should be some exceptions to bans on no-knock raids when “lives are in jeopardy,” but not when police are “saving dope” as part of a search warrant. “My son is in law enforcement, and I do not want him to get hurt, shot, killed while serving a warrant when it wasn’t necessary,” said Lomax, a retired major with the Pennsylvania State Police. “I had friends who were shot doing dope deals, and then years later marijuana was legalized in that state.” Campaign Zero’s initiative also received the endorsement of Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, who said the drug raid in which police killed her daughter should have never been authorized. “I’m not the only parent who has lost a child due to these practices of breaking down doors with hopes of scoring drugs and cash,” Palmer said in a statement. “These reform efforts need to continue so that no one else loses a loved one as a result of these dangerous, deadly and unnecessary practices. Palmer’s statement continued: Please support these critically important efforts. The lives of innocent daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers AND police officers depend upon immediate elimination of these raids. We’re counting on legislators nationwide to act NOW. Otherwise, it could just as easily be their own families who are next ones grieving over a loss resulting out of a police home invasion. DeRay Mckesson, a prominent Black Lives Matter activist and the co-founder of Campaign Zero, said Palmer and her legal team “helped us understand the necessary scope of a solution to end no knock raids and the necessity to go beyond only ending no knock warrants.” Lawrence Bryant / Reuters Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, has endorsed Campaign Zero’s effort. Over the summer, Louisville’s city council unanimously voted for “Breonna’s Law” to end no-knock warrants in the city. In September, Kentucky’s attorney general announced that a grand jury declined to indict the officers who killed Taylor on murder charges in connection with her death. Pete Kraska, a professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University and an expert on police militarization, said he met Lomax back in 2014 when they were testifying about the federal 1033 program, which sends military tactical gear to local police departments. “He was very concerned about how SWAT had been running amok in regard to drug raids, and really thought deep in his bones that they shouldn’t be in the business of what he calls ‘rescuing drugs,’” Kraska said. “He looked very carefully and reviewed our model legislation, and he ended up at a place where he felt like he could fully endorse it.” Kraska, who has been a research leader on the use of SWAT going back to the mid-1990s, said the spread of SWAT culture throughout entire police institutions has been “tragic” and “probably the worst consequence of what I call the normalization of police militarization.” Kraska said he’s watched tragedies similar to Taylor’s death take place since 1992, and that he’s been trying to shine a light on the issue for decades. “I just think people in general ― and people of color specifically ― are really ready for some real changes to take place in policing, and the Breonna Taylor case is a tragedy that I think has just woke up a lot of people,” Kraska said. “So I’m really pleased to see the momentum.”
1,500 Attorneys Call On Bar Associations To Condemn Trump Campaign Lawyers
218 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["In an open letter, 1,500 attorneys slammed the Donald Trump campaign for seeking to overturn the will of U.S. voters and called on bar associations to investigate lawyers who filed lawsuits on Trump’s behalf. The le...
Trump Campaign Committees Spent $1.1 Million On Trump Properties In Last Weeks: Report
2.00K Views0 Comments9 Likes
["President Donald Trump’s campaign committees spent more than $1.1 million at his own properties in the final weeks of the presidential race, The Washington Post reported Friday. That makes an astonishing total of $6...
Trump Campaign Assumed Easy Georgia Win And Appears to Have Left Millions Unspent
96 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["SAUL LOEB via Getty Images President Donald Trump stands with campaign manager Bill Stepien aboard Air Force One on Aug. 28, 2020. WASHINGTON – The campaign of President Donald Trump was so focused on not overspendi...
Ousted Trump Campaign Manager Names Biggest Reelection Blunder
0 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said President Donald Trump’s failure to show empathy for Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic was the biggest mistake of his 2020 reelection campaign. “We had a...
Trump Campaign Files Lawsuit Challenging Wisconsin Election Results
0 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Wisconsin seeking to disqualify hundreds of thousands of ballots in a longshot attempt to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s win in the battleground ...
Wisconsin Lawyer For Trump Campaign Takes Action To Throw Out Own Ballot: Report
431 Views0 Comments1 Likes
["In a surreal twist, the lawyer leading Donald Trump’s Wisconsin election battle is seeking to throw out thousands of “illegal” votes, including his wife’s and his own, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. Attorn...
Trump Campaign Sidelines Sidney Powell From Legal Team
81 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["President Donald Trump’s campaign appeared to distance itself from Sidney Powell, a controversial attorney who’s been serving prominently on the legal team while Trump tries to steal the 2020 election through basele...
Election Updates: Trump Campaign Faces Major Legal Setbacks; Biden Wins Certified
128 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["President Donald Trump continues to deny that President-elect Joe Biden won the election, more than two weeks after Biden delivered his victory speech. Trump’s legal team, headed by Rudy Giuliani, has suffered sever...