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Posted: 2023-03-08T16:43:21Z | Updated: 2023-03-08T20:28:40Z

A new report by the Department of Justice determined that the Kentucky police department responsible for the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor unlawfully discriminates against Black people, among other findings.

The report , released Wednesday, found that the Louisville Police Department uses excessive force, uses invalid warrants to conduct searches, unlawfully stops people and violates the rights of people engaged in protected free speech critical of policing.

The DOJs two-year investigation began following the killing of 26-year-old Taylor by Louisville police officers, who knocked her door down while executing a drug search warrant. Taylor was fatally shot by police after her boyfriend fired a shot at the officers as they came through the door. Last year, a Louisville officer pleaded guilty to falsifying the warrant that led to the deadly shooting.

Louisville police officers were also using neck restraints in circumstances that are not justified, the department wrote.

The department found that officers were using neck restraints even while it was prohibited by department policy.

In one incident, officers responded to a call of an elderly Black man who was dancing in the street. Officers arrived to the scene and within seconds grabbed the man and pulled him down by his neck. One of the officers sat on the mans head and neck while they were trying to handcuff him for nearly 30 seconds.

Then, officers turned him over and one of them pressed their knee on his neck for nearly two minutes as witnesses watched, the report says.

They are objectively unreasonable where a person is already restrained or poses no danger to others. Our review shows that LMPD officers resort to neck restraints even against people who are not resisting, or people who have already been handcuffed or otherwise subdued, the Justice Department wrote.