Jimmy Fallon decided to skip his monologue on Wednesday night.
Following the decision by a grand jury in Kentucky not to indict officers in the killing of Breonna Taylor, the host of “The Tonight Show” decided to jump right into his show by inviting on MSNBC anchor Joy Reid to talk about the case.
“Here was this 26-year-old EMT, who was serving her community, who had all these aspirations and dreams, and was her sister’s best friend, and had really changed her life and found a career that she loved, found a man that she loved,” Reid said. “And then she’s just cut down in her apartment.”
Taylor was killed in March, when police executed a warrant on her apartment in the middle of the night when she was asleep. Police shot Taylor at least eight times.
Follow grand jury deliberations, the only indictment handed down was against one officer for “wanton endangerment” for firing bullets into neighbouring apartments.
After explaining the case, Reid said, “I’ve been covering Black Lives Matter since the Trayvon Martin case, and the only time that I’ve ever been surprised was in the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore when [the police] were charged. The surprise is when there are charges.”
She later added, “I can’t see anything significant that has changed in the criminal justice system in my lifetime… We as a society have to decide whether or not we think it’s acceptable for police to be able to enter our homes at any time of night they want, with any amount of force they want, and kill anyone they want.
Reid continued, “If that’s the society we want, we’re just going to have more of this. If we at some point decide, no, policing has to have some limits, they just can’t kill anyone they want and then tell any story they want and not try to save the person’s life after they shoot them, we just have to decide that’s not acceptable.
