[imagesource: YouTube / Last Week Tonight with John Oliver]

The name George Floyd is now known around the world, for his murder at the hands of American law enforcement, and the same is true for Breonna Taylor, although to a lesser degree.

Taylor was killed last year after plainclothed police officers mistakenly broke into her apartment in the middle of the night, with six of the 32 shots they fired striking the 26-year-old.

Having returned from a hiatus with a segment on meatpacking, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver turned his attention to police raids this past Sunday, using Taylor’s case as a starting point to illustrate a wider problem in law enforcement.

Before we watch that, here’s an overview via The Guardian:

None of the officers were indicted for her death, “and if it is somehow nobody’s fault that an innocent woman was killed in the middle of the night in her own home”, said the Last Week Tonight host, “there might be an issue with police raids”…

Given that police are usually armed with military-grade weapons, raids frequently end in unnecessary tragedy; a New York Times investigation found that between 2010 and 2016, 81 civilians were killed in police raids…

Oliver also touched on the potential costs of defending oneself from armed intruders in the middle of the night – Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who believed the officers were intruders, was charged with attempted murder for shooting at the police (the charges were later dropped after national attention on Taylor’s killing).

All in all, whilst police raids are the staple of shows like Cops, there is clearly much work that needs to be done, both in terms of training and legislation, to prevent more deaths like that of Taylor.

Settle in for the full segment:

[source:guardian]