In a video statement posted on Twitter Wednesday, Ohio State University President Kristina Johnson ignited controversy with a statement about Breonna Taylor.
In the 45 second clip Johnson said:
“Breonna Taylor deserves justice, and this does not feel like justice. We cannot accept what has happened in Louisville, we grieve the tragic and senseless loss of Breonna Taylor, a daughter, a friend, a niece, a loved one, who was unarmed and asleep. The breakdown in the justice system and the killings of unarmed Black and Brown people in our country has become all too familiar, tragically. This isn’t going to stop until we create an anti-racist world. We must come together to draw strength from each other and advance our collective vision for a better world where we’ll one day have justice for all. There is much work to be done.”
https://twitter.com/PresKMJohnson/status/1308904570123366402
Johnson’s statement comes after a Kentucky grand jury’s decision to not press charges against two of three police officers involved in the March 13 shootout that resulted in Taylor’s death. The decision quickly lead to protests and rioting, and two police officers being shot.
The video was a follow up to a text Johnson is reported to have sent out to OSU students sometime after the initial release of the grand jury’s decision.
According to The Gateway Pundit, Johnson sent this text message to students after the grand jury’s decision.
“Dear Buckeye Nation, Breonna Taylor deserves justice, and this does not feel like justice. We cannot accept what has happened in Louisville. We grieve the tragic and senseless loss of Breonna Taylor – a daughter, a friend, a niece, a loved one who was unarmed and asleep.”
While Johnson did receive support on Twitter, the overwhelming majority of respondents were unhappy with Johnson’s statement going so far as to call for her resignation and others saying that they would not be sending their children to OSU as a result.
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Ben Kolodny is a reporter for The Ohio Star and the Star News Network. You can follow Ben on Twitter. Tips can be sent to [email protected].
Photo “Kristina Johnson” by Kristina Johnson.
You are so wrong on so many levels lady. You should resign immediately. You are the problem spewing hate and racism. You are the reason so man young people are so messed up in the head these days. Breonna Taylor was not sleeping, she was standing in the hallway when she got shot and it was her boyfriends fault because he started shooting at police first injuring one officer. Breonna Taylor was mixed up with dangerous people and was most likely dealing drugs. Sorry she was killed but she was partly to blame for her own demise.
It was not a “no-knock” warrant. They knocked and announced their presence. The criminal in the apartment fired at the police first wounding an officer. They other officers were then in a kill or be killed situation.
The OSU president said that Taylor was “asleep”. That is also not true. I can understand how a person who wasn’t there and doesn’t know the facts could reach the wrong conclusion, but when the president of a large university makes public statements from a position of ignorance it is inexcusable.
Um, what criminal was in the apartment? Breonna had no criminal record. Her boyfriend, a licensed gun owner, not a criminal, shot once at people he thought were breaking into her home. Seems like you are the one making ignorant statements.
I’m sure that most of the hateful comments are from people who have never been stopped by a police officer and wondered whether they will be able to drive off alive. If you have never been in this type of a situation then there’s no way you ever be in a position to understand and sympathize with this Breanna Taylor situation. My daddy told me years ago (after a white man shot at my mother and barely missed her after I went through a brief period of hating whites) that all white people are not bad. We talked about the situation and he told me that “If there wasn’t some good white people in this world blacks would not have received the progress that we have made.
After watching a tv program about how bounty hunters can break into your house without knocking, I have been against no knock warrants. The bounty hunter broke into the wrong house, beat up the house owner, and shot him. The bounty hunter broke into the wrong house and the laws protected him. I am against no knock warrants period.
The OSU president is a good person for standing up for what is right. NO ONE SHOULD ENTER A HOUSE WITHOUT KNOCKING FIRST AND HAVING A PERSON TO ANSWER THE KNOCK. If what happened to Brianna Taylor happened to you I think you would sing a different tune. The Police officers were wrong and should be held to answer for their actions. The number of times that they fired were overkill. If they are that excitable they should be in a different line of work.