There are many things wrong with our justice system from mass incarceration, the dehumanizing experience of prison, the lack of rehabilitation for criminals, shoddy police work, etc.

There are a lot of changes to be made that will take a long time to see results from.

Today though, I want to talk about how the justice system failed one particular woman: Breonna Taylor.

On March 13 of this year, police raided the home of Taylor in Louisville, KY, resulting in her untimely death. The police had a search warrant for the home, so they proceeded with kicking down her door and reigning terror.

Those police officers murdered Breonna Taylor in her own home. Over what? Narcotics they thought she had, but were actually connected to associates of hers. There was no reason for police to have performed their work in the way they did.

The police had what is called a “no knock” warrant, where they don’t have to announce themselves. They said they thought drugs were being sent to her home and they didn’t want to risk the drugs being destroyed, as reported on by The Washington Post.

When they came into her home, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought it was an intruder so he shot at the police causing an injury to one police officer.

Walker was then almost charged with attempted murder and assault but the charges were dropped in May. Yet, it took months of pleading and protests in both Louisville and across the nation for them to put the three police officers, who were involved in murdering someone that night, on trial. Makes complete sense.

As we all know, the police officers were not charged with her murder, and one was only charged with wanton endangerment, which is similar to reckless endangerment, according to an article on Taylor’s case published by The New York Times.

Those police officers responded to one gunshot by returning 22 back. 22 shots compared to one. There were three of them with three guns against two people with one gun in their own home. In what world does any of this make sense?

These police officers should be charged with murder and serve time for what they’ve done.

This just shows that now, more than ever, we have to keep fighting back against systematic racism or justice will never be served.

Breonna Taylor should be alive today. Her family should have never had to go through this, just as other victims’ families shouldn’t have to.

Justice does not exist in the ways we think it should, and with that, there is no peace anymore. Keep protesting. Keep fighting back.

Gillian Eubanks junior health communications major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or gdeubanks@eiu.edu.