Members of the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday joined the group of NFL players to voice their frustration in Wednesday's decision by a Kentucky grand jury to bring no charges against Louisville police for their role in the death of Breonna Taylor.
The one indictment brought by the grand jury was three counts of wanton endangerment against fired Officer Brett Hankison for shooting into Taylor's neighbors' homes during the raid on the night of March 13.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, the 2019 NFL MVP, told reporters that the team has not yet discussed the grand jury's decision, but he voiced his dismay at the ruling.
"We haven't discussed what went on yesterday," Jackson said. "When I got up this morning, I was seeing it on social media of her not getting no justice. But, you know, we’ve got other things in the world that get justice that don’t really need justice. But people want to push that issue a lot more than our Black lives that’s mattering, Breonna Taylor being one of them. It’s crazy. We never get justice for serious things on our side of the part. We’re in America where it should be freedom of speech, the land of the free. But I don’t really feel like it’s been that way for us Black people sometimes.”
Jackson starred at the University of Louisville where he won the Heisman Trophy in 2016 and spoke to the "wonderful people, goodhearted people" who make up the city.
"I know they’re going through a lot right now just for the city," Jackson said. "It’s a small city. I don’t know what they’re going through to be honest with you. I know it’s touching for a lot of people’s families.”
The Ravens made the prosecution of the police officers responsible for the death of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, a goal for the organization in an Aug. 27 statement in which they also demanded Sen. Mitch McConnell to bring the George Floyd Justice in Police Act of 2020 to the Senate floor for a vote.
"Personally, I mean, it sucks," Ravens safety Chuck Clark said. "Because as a team, that was one of the first things that we put out as our mission statement, to have those cops arrested. And just to hear the verdict that came down from that, and there's no justice to it. It's almost like we -- and when I say we, not just the Ravens, I'm talking about everybody across the country -- it's almost as if we let her down in that situation. For somebody to be in their house sleep and for that to happen to them, unarmed, it's as if we let her down in that situation. My prayers go out to her family, dealing with that and hearing that yesterday."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.