Governor Readies National Guard Ahead Of Breonna Taylor Protests

CHICAGO — Ahead of planned protests in Chicago, state, county and city political leaders condemned a decision by a Kentucky grand jury to indict a former police officer on a single wanton endangerment charge over the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot encouraged people to demonstrate peacefully, calling for a 7 p.m. moment of silence to honor the Taylor's life.

"Our hope is that people will listen to what we've said here today and that people will protest peacefully because Breonna deserves to have her name said, she deserves to be remembered," Pritzker said.

The governor confirmed he has readied the Illinois National Guard and Illinois State Police to back up local agencies should they be needed.

"We have seen that there are people who have wanted to take advantage of these moments," he said. "Not the peaceful protestors. It's people who see that there's peaceful protest and they will hide — perhaps even among peaceful protestors — or think that police are distracted and take advantage of that moment."

There was no ballpark number available from the governor's office of how many Illinois Guardsmen were placed in a state of readiness or whether any have been activated.

Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was killed in an exchange of gunfire after her boyfriend opened fire on officers executing a search warrant as part of a narcotics investigation into a man who did not live there.

On Wednesday, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced three counts of wanton endangerment for Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police detective, was the only criminal charge approved by a grand jury.

Cameron said the other two officers involved were justified in firing their guns because Taylor's boyfriend had shot at one of them. He also said witnesses said the officers knocked on the door before entering.

"No matter where we are in processing today's news, we need to do so peacefully," Lightfoot said. "We don't need to be a commercial for people who want to mischaracterize who we are as a city and as a people."

Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson also appeared at the press conference. He said "no-knock" search warrants are dangerous and any violent response would be mistake.

"We must be smart enough not to turn our anguish and anger into destruction and give Trump a commercial," Jackson said. "Turn pain to power. I urge you to demonstrate in your own way. There's power in massive non-violent direct action."

Jackson warned that conservative political leaders are seeking to capitalize on images of civil unrest, much as the 1968 presidential campaign of Richard Nixon emphasized violence that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

"They're provoking. They need the violence to justify their sense of action politically," Jackson said. "We must not become commercials for these right-wingers in this country. On TV right now, you have vigilantes going down the streets of Louisville with their guns out."

RELATED: Ex-Louisville Cop Charged With Wanton Endangerment In Breonna Taylor Case

Months after Taylor's March 13 killing, her name rose to national prominence following the in-custody homicide of George Floyd, who died on Memorial Day with a Minneapolis police officer's knee on his neck.

Last week, Louisville city officials agreed to pay $12 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by Taylor's family.

The Metro Council also voted unanimously to pass "Breonna's Law," an ordinance ending the city's practice of allowing its police to seek "no-knock" warrants, where judges permit officers to break into homes without warning — generally under the pretense that drugs will get destroyed or it makes officers safer.

Lightfoot said she will continue to allow the Chicago Police Department to execute unannounced search warrants but wants there to be as few of them as possible.

"'No-knock' search warrants should be extraordinarily rare," Lightfoot said. "And there's got to be documented evidence of exigent circumstances before that search warrant is even approved internally before it even gets to a court."

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and the Louisville Police Department Tuesday declared a state of emergency in the metropolitan area "due to potential civil unrest" ahead of the announcement of the grand jury's findings.