This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Brianna Taylor was killed by Louisville Police in the early morning hours of March 13th.

Today, more than six months later, one of the three officers involved was charged, but not with murder, not with manslaughter, but with three counts of want and endangerment.

And none of those charges directly relate to the death of Miss Taylor.

Clark Neely, Vice President for Criminal Justice at the Cato Institute,

discusses today's announcement and its implications for policing.

The killing of Brianna Taylor is a tragedy that need not have happened.

There are two ways it could have been avoided.

One is if we would abandon the pointless wasteful and immoral war on drugs.

The second is if police were more careful

and more thoughtful about the way they do their job

and less inclined to use violent tactics like storming into somebody's

residents in the middle of the night. There are plenty of other ways that this

operation could have been done. They chose the most dangerous route and that cost Brianna Taylor her life.

So the charges that were filed, this is against Brett Hankison, who's one of the three officers involved in this raid.

They are charges of wanton endangerment. None of those charges relate to

what occurred inside Brianna Taylor's apartment that is they are related to shots fired into

neighboring apartments. What makes it so difficult to charge what you and I might think would be appropriate as a legal matter.

What makes it difficult to charge these officers in her death.

Well, the thing that makes it most difficult is then

when Kenneth Walker, who was in the apartment

...