WASHINGTON – Following an appearance before the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police in Bowling Green on March 21, Rep. Andy Barr, virtually frothing at the mouth to become the Commonwealth’s next U.S. senator, wanted to make it clear that he has “never caved to, or promoted, Black Lives Matter.’’
For a change, considering the words sprung from the mouth of a politician, his claim is easy to believe. Barr, R-Lexington, has stressed at several points during the campaign that he isn’t exactly enamored with efforts to embrace Kentucky’s Black population and he hasn’t been shy about saying so.
In fact, Barr is likely waging the most racially charged statewide campaign since the Civil Rights era. He is following in the footsteps of another Republican, former Gov. Louie Nunn, who, in his first albeit unsuccessful effort to capture the state’s top office in 1963, vowed if elected to repeal an executive order signed by Gov. Bert T. Combs that desegregated public accommodations, thus ensuring equal access to public services and facilities to everyone regardless of race.
Now isn’t that something to be proud of.
Black Lives Matter, for some reason, seems to be on Andy Barr’s mind a lot, and not in a good way. The day before his appearance with the FOP he plunged headlong into another racially fraught issue -– the killing of Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician shot by Louisville police during a botched early morning drug raid at her residence on March 13, 2020, an incident that understandably appalled and enraged the city’s Black community.
The Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi, announced last Friday it is seeking the dismissal of all remaining charges against two Louisville officers involved in the incident who were charged with participating in an effort to deprive Taylor of her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
The department announced, “…this case should be dismissed in the interest of justice.’’
The DOJ initially claimed the two, Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, lied in the application for a search warrant to invade Taylor’s home. The plain-clothed officers charged into the residence – there remains a dispute whether they announced themselves as police – drawing gunfire from Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. Taylor was shot dead in her bed.
At the same time, federal prosecutors are seeking the release from prison, at least temporarily, of former Louisville policeman Brett Hankison, sentenced to 33 months for using excessive force in the raid. The release, if honored by the courts, would extend through his appeal of that verdict.
Said Andy, in a post on the X social media site: “Thank you President Trump and AG Bondi for righting this wrong. BLM’s war on police that some in this race promoted and others participated in led to these cops being wrongly prosecuted. Our police officers were defending themselves against Breonna Taylor’s crazed criminal gunman drug dealer boyfriend. I will always defend our police.’’
Now, you might think taking a joyous victory lap around a dead woman’s body isn’t exactly the vision you want to leave in the minds of voters. It doesn’t seem to bother Andy. And you might think the potential for cops lying on a search warrant application that leads to the tragic and unnecessary death of that very same woman (yes, even though she was a Black woman, Andy) might merit more than a stupid “I will always defend the police.’’
But that’s what the Commonwealth is getting from Andy Barr. His commitment to police apparently extends even to instances where they’re wrong. It doesn’t seem to matter that, as an elected official, he represents Black and White voters alike. And, of course, Black Lives Matter has declared war on no one. They just want justice.
Black Lives Matter is a loosely organized social and civil rights movement initiated as a result of a series of Black deaths at the hands of police. It seeks to end racism and inequality by focusing on the abuse and brutality aimed at Black people, which, despite Andy’s obvious ignorance, persists.
Louisville attorneys Ben Crump and Lonita Baker, representing the Taylor family, offered a radically different view than the one expressed by the man who yearns to be the Commonwealth’s next senator.
“Breonna Taylor always deserved more than the scraps of justice she got,’’ they said in a statement. “Now, even those may be further stripped away. The Department of Justice’s move to dismiss these remaining charges is deeply painful for Breonna Taylor’s family and it sends a chilling message about the value of Black lives in our country.’’
The two attorneys added, “We will not stop fighting until her life, and the lives of all Black women, is valued equally under the law.”
And, by the way, that “crazed criminal gunman drug dealer boyfriend,’’ named Kenneth Walker? He had a gun permit and fired at intruders not knowing they were police. And he didn’t face any drug charges over the incident.
This was not the first time during this campaign that Barr, who will say and do anything to gain the coveted Senate seat and is sucking up like a leech to President-cum-Dictator Donald J. Trump, has attacked those advocating for civil rights without provocation.
Last month, Andy released one of the all-time disgusting TV ads that, in a more humane time, would have ended the campaign. It featured an attack on DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — established at educational institutions and businesses to boost opportunities for Blacks and other marginalized folks who have been victimized by the nation’s past sins.
Andy, being that oh so crafty dude that he is, opined that DEI really stands for “dumb evil indoctrination.’’ In his words, offering Black folks a helping hand in a society that remains satisfied with keeping them struggling is “evil’’ and, as he noted later in the ad, “trash.’’
Then, as a coda to that 30-second spot, he quips, “It’s not a sin to be White.’’
Now where the hell did that come from? Wow, I’ll alert the media.
Has there been a subsequent ad where our boy Andy notes, “It’s not a sin to be Black?’’ Is it a sin to be brown? That just seems to be left up in the ozone.
And that doesn’t get into the silly pro-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spots, one of which depicts a brown, Hispanic man, assumably an undocumented immigrant, laughing and throwing money at the camera (to be fair, an ad from supporters of one of his opponents, Lexington businessman Nate Morris, attacking Barr on his position on immigration, is even more despicable).
You have to wonder why Andy Barr, in rabid pursuit of his political ambition regardless of the cost to others, is introducing racial animosity to his quest. It might be as simple as arithmetic — Blacks make up about 7.88 percent of the Commonwealth’s population according to a recent estimate by Neilsberg. Very few of them vote Republican and are settled in a few spots like Lexington and Louisville.
The Black voter pool, therefore, isn’t big enough to do him any harm. And it might just be that Andy Barr thinks his views on race are shared by a substantial proportion of Republican primary voters.
If so, Kentucky is, indeed, facing a sad state of affairs.
Regardless, it’s one ugly and harmful way to win a nomination.