Activist Tamika Mallory didn't hold back when she blasted Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron for failing to directly indict the police officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor for her slaying.
"I want you to understand how wicked he is and how wicked this system is," the activist said during a Friday press conference.
As Blavity previously reported, Cameron announced the decision on Wednesday, saying two of the officers were "justified in their use of force after being fired upon" by Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. The other, detective was charged with wanton endangerment for shooting into three apartments — none of which were the one in which Taylor resided.
"I know that not everyone will be satisfied," Cameron said last Wednesday. "If we simply act on outrage there is no justice – mob justice is not justice… Do we really want the truth? Or the truth that fits our narrative," he said.
Responding to the decision, Mallory drew upon a prideful past statement made by Cameron upon receipt of his endorsement from the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police (KFOP). She described the KFOP as one of the most racist organizations that exists in America before reminding her supporters that Cameron was honored by the endorsement.
“It is a great honor to receive the endorsement of the bi-partisan Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police," the attorney general stated in the pledge referenced by Mallory. "To the men and women in blue, I pledge to be your advocate and your voice every day."
Cameron added that he would bring focus to the drug crisis, calling it the public safety challenge of our lifetime.
"Daniel Cameron is not here to protect citizens and to make the state of Kentucky safer," Mallory said. "But he was honest about one part. And that is that he is an advocate for police. And that he was going to be their voice and to do whatever is necessary to protect them."
Mallory lambasted the attorney general for his lack of commitment to the Black community.
"I thought about him saying he’s a Black man," she said of the two instances in which Cameron asserted his Blackness during last Wednesday's press conference. "I thought about the ships that went into Fort Monroe and Jamestown with our people on them over 400 years ago and how there were also Black men on those ships that were responsible for bringing our people over here. Daniel Cameron is no different than the sellout negroes that sold our people into slavery."
Mallory, a co-founder of the Women's March on Washington, then went on to say Cameron is being used by the system to hurt his people.
"We have no respect for you," she said. "No respect for your Black skin because all of our skin folk ain’t our kin folk and you do not belong to Black people at all."
The day of Kentucky's decision in the Taylor case also happened to mark the 65th anniversary of Emmett Till's murder.
"Now, I don’t know if it’s just that Daniel Cameron is stupid or that he is very, very, very clear about history and made a decision to wait six months and come forward with this announcement," Mallory said. "This garbage that we received on the exact same day that Emmett Till’s family received the same result."
The murder of Taylor has sparked ongoing global protests in the past six months. And still, social justice advocates don't plan on slowing down until justice is served.
"We are not going home," Mallory said. "We will make sure that this city is as uncomfortable as it can be and we intend to travel across the state of Kentucky and make sure that in every corner of this state, they know who you are, Daniel Cameron, and who is upholding the system of white supremacy that continues to oppress our people."
Attorney Ben Crump, representing Taylor's family, also spoke at Friday's press conference, pressuring Cameron to prove that he tried to get justice for the 26-year-old EMT.
"If you did everything that you could do on Breonna’s behalf, you shouldn’t have any problem whatsoever, Daniel Cameron, to releasing the transcript so that we can see you fought for all of Kentucky citizens, especially including Tamika Palmer’s daughter, Breonna Taylor," Crump said. "Release the transcript."