The Louisville city council overwhelmingly passed a no-confidence resolution against Mayor Greg Fischer, citing his handling of Breonna Taylor’s death and the subsequent fallout.
The council voted 22-4 on Thursday for the measure that expresses their discontent with the mayor but does not call for his resignation. Metro Council President David James and council member Markus Winkler, the authors of the resolution, took out language calling for Fischer’s resignation and instead included a list of ways he could rebuild trust within the community, WAVE 3 News reported.
Some of the suggestions include incentivizing officers to live in the areas they police, increasing affordable housing, and a complete review of the entire police department by the end of the year.
“The Council believes that Mayor Greg Fischer failed to hold leadership of the Louisville Metro Police Department (“LMPD”) properly accountable,” the approved resolution stated, according to NBC News.
Fischer responded to the vote in a video posted to Twitter.
“With the benefit of hindsight, I see that, given the choice of two difficult paths, I’ve sometimes taken the wrong one,” the mayor said. “I sometimes failed to recognize quickly enough where changes needed to be made. And tonight’s vote makes clear I have not fostered a productive relationship with all of council that is necessary to avoid silos and distractions. I apologize for this because what’s also clear is this: we have enormous challenges ahead and to move forward, we need to pull together.”
Taylor, a black, 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was shot and killed by police officers in March after they rushed into her home using a no-knock warrant to search for drugs. Kenneth Walker, her boyfriend, said he heard the unidentified officers break into the home and thought it was a home invasion, so he fired a warning shot. Officers returned fire and shot Taylor eight times. No drugs were found in the home.
Detective Brett Hankison, the officer who shot Taylor, was fired from the department, and two other officers who were present were reassigned to administrative duties. None of the three officers involved has been charged with a crime.
Earlier this week, the city of Louisville agreed to a $12 million settlement with Taylor’s family.
Protesters have taken to the streets to demand the officers involved in Taylor’s fatal shooting be charged. They are part of a wider array of demonstrations around the country against police brutality and racial inequality in response to other law enforcement-involved incidents, including the death of George Floyd and the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
