The death of Breonna Taylor last year was one of the most tragic events in a year defined by tragedy. While it’s nothing close to the justice Taylor deserves, the firing of the officer who obtained the no-knock warrant that led to her fatal police shooting has been upheld.
According to the Associated Press, the Louisville Metro Police Merit Board unanimously voted to uphold the firing of Joshua Jaynes, the former Louisville police officer who obtained the warrant in the drug raid. The decision came after three days of hearings and hours of deliberation. Jaynes was fired in January after interim Police Chief Yvette Gentry found that he wasn’t truthful about how he obtained some of the information in the warrant.
Last month, The Root reported on Jaynes’ inconsistent explanations on how he obtained the information used to justify the warrant. In an affidavit last year, Jaynes initially said that he obtained information that packages for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend were being delivered to her apartment from a postal worker. Gentry found that he actually received the information from a fellow detective and that he didn’t independently verify it. When questioned by the merit board over this inconsistency he admitted that he didn’t actually speak to the postal inspector.
You know what I call it when you say you did something you didn’t actually do? Lying.
His attorney, Thomas Clay, felt otherwise and argued that Jaynes didn’t actually lie on the affidavit. I don’t know how he argued that, but apparently he did. He also argued that Jaynes didn’t have a responsibility to independently verify information from a fellow law enforcement officer when putting it in an affidavit.
What do these people have a responsibility to do then? You’d think they’d at least have some vested interest in making sure their information is correct, because as we’ve seen in this case, getting it wrong can result in someone dying for no reason.
Unsurprisingly, Jaynes still believes he deserves his job back despite his blatantly lazy police work. Clay has said they intend to appeal the ruling in a circuit court after the board officially issues the order. Only a white man could still feel entitled to their job after someone died due their fuckup.