John Legend wrote an essay demanding justice for Breonna Taylor who was killed by police in her own home
- John Legend called for the arrest of the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor in an opinion essay he wrote in Entertainment Weekly on Friday.
- Three Louisville Metro Police Department officers shot the 26-year-old EMT eight times after entering her home with a "no-knock warrant" on March 13.
- None of the officers have been arrested nor fired. The FBI is investigating Taylor's death, however.
- On what would've been her 27th birthday, Legend demanded the officers be arrested and encouraged people to "say her name."
- "Today I use my platform to demand justice for this essential person, this woman, daughter, sister, and friend," he wrote.
In an opinion essay he wrote in Entertainment Weekly on Friday, John Legend demanded justice for Breonna Taylor on what would have been her 27th birthday.
The emergency medical technician was shot eight times after three Louisville Metro Police Department officers — Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove — entered her home using a "no-knock warrant" during a narcotics bust on March 13. While the case is currently under investigation by the FBI, the three police officers haven't been arrested or fired.
"Until elected officials create consequences for egregious and fatal police misconduct, they will continue to kill us with impunity," Legend wrote.
The Grammy-winning musician called on government officials to arrest the officers and charge them with second-degree murder. He urged people to honor her and keep her memory alive.
"Breonna should be celebrating her 27th birthday today. Like so many Black women, she was an essential worker, an emergency medical technician, the kind of first responder we depend on to save lives during this ongoing pandemic," he wrote, continuing to explain the police officers' wrongdoings that led to her death.
Legend added, "Now is the time for us to join together and emphatically SAY HER NAME. Black women created this call to action because we continue to wrongly talk about the generations-long crisis of police and vigilante violence in a gendered way, as if it only happens to Black men."
As protests against police violence have picked up across the world following George Floyd's death on May 25, Taylor's name hasn't been at the forefront of the conversation — despite the lack of consequences for the officers who killed her. People have worked to keep her name connected to the movement by using the hashtag #SayHerName on Twitter.
The Say Her Name campaign was started by The African American Policy Forum and the Columbia Law School Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies in 2014 "to call attention to police violence against Black women, girls and femmes" and demand "that their stories be integrated into calls for justice, policy responses to police violence, and media representations of police brutality."
Legend noted that Taylor was one of the many black women that have been killed by the police and encouraged people to make them a focal point of the movement.
"On Breonna's 27th birthday, I say her name and the names of Eleanor Bumpers, Atatiana Jefferson, Nina Pop, Aiyana Jones, Sandra Bland, Korryn Gaines, Pamela Turner, Tyisha Miller, Miriam Carey, Chynal Lindsey, Shelly Frey, Darnisha Harris, and too many more," he wrote.
Legend added, "Today I use my platform to demand justice for this essential person, this woman, daughter, sister, and friend. While her loved ones need to be indeed in our prayers on this hard day, we also must commit to never stop fighting for justice in her name."
Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen previously vowed to donate $200,000 to the Movement for Black Lives, the National Lawyers Guild, and The Bail Project.
"Americans have the first amendment right to peacefully protest oppression and injustice," he tweeted.