Rev. William J. Barber II on Today’s Louisville Indictment

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: The Kentucky attorney general said it is not clear at this time which of any of the bullets that were fired actually was the fatal one. So, what do you make of the indictment on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree?

REV. WILLIAM J. BARBER II, CO-CHAIR, POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN: Well, first of all, I want to be mindful that this is McConnell’s former lawyer. And he sounded at the end like an old, white supremacist in the south that basically blamed the protest on outsiders. And then he conflated the protest with violence when the only violence that’s really been done has taken life and destroyed life in Kentucky has been that of the officers. He didn’t make any commitment that he would stand behind the call for a full federal investigation. This indictment erases the name of Breonna Taylor. He didn’t even mention. It’s more about endangerment to the neighbors and wanton actions. And for him to say that the truth has been found, I’m from the south, and we know a lot of times when grand juries come back, the truth has not been found. In fact, a grand jury doesn’t find the truth. A grand jury simply says whether or not there needs to be a trial to find the truth. He’s saying there doesn’t even need to be a trial to find the truth. And when you say he doesn’t know which bullet, he knows a bullet from all of those which were shot. We also know that there should be — this no-knock warrant is wrong in the first place. And so, the first thing I want to say — it’s several other things but I want to say this very clearly, because we’re going to deal with racism. Just because the attorney general is black does not mean he gets a pass on criticism. And he, too, is an enabler of racism if he allows these officers not to be tried in the courts, tried, the trial. Civil lawsuits that — and insurance companies paying don’t become an answer to murder by officers of the state. There needs to be a trial. And that’s why ultimately, we need a federal law that holds police officers accountable for when they kill innocent, unarmed black people and they can be tried for murder at the federal level. But to not even have a trial, every American, regardless of race, creed or color, should be really, really, really concerned about that, to have all this and not even to have a trial and then to erase the person that was killed out of the final decision is horrific. And protesters nonviolently should be protesting. Protesters have been protesting nonviolent. The violence here has been perpetrated by a no-knock warrant and all this shooting that already our civil suit said was a wrongful death, and even todays on indictment says there was wantonness, that shouldn’t have been. So, there’s no reason there shouldn’t be an indictment and the truth be sought in court.