Breonna Taylor Shooting Footage Played at Restaurant, Interrupting Diners with Sounds of Gunshots
The Republican Women’s Club of South Central Kentucky held an event at a restaurant with not-so-special guest John Mattingly, per NBC News. The former cop was invited to talk about “his side” of the Breonna Taylor shooting. As a result, restaurant patrons unaffiliated with the event were disturbed by the playing of the body camera footage.
Mattingly, who seemingly did a Kyle Rittenhouse-esque rebranding, is now an author and conservative speaker. The GOP group invited him to the Bowling Green Country Club in Kentucky to discuss his book, “12 Seconds In The Dark: A Police Officer’s Firsthand Account Of The Breonna Taylor Raid.” The group told Spectrum News Louisville they believed even though the Breonna Taylor raid was “controversial,” Mattingly had the right to share his experience… as if we hadn’t heard about it enough through all the court hearings.
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Mattingly’s invitation to the event moved gubernatorial candidate Ryan Quarles to tap out of attending, which was a great decision considering the foolishness that occurred at this shin-dig. At the country club’s eatery, Anna’s Greek Restaurant, patrons say the lights randomly went dark and their meals suddenly were interrupted by the sounds and scenes of the fatal SWAT raid that took Taylor’s life.
The audio was played through the restaurant speakers.
Read more about the incident from NBC News:
Cayce Johnson, who posted an account of the evening to Facebook, said that restaurant patrons were given no warning the event would take place and that it became so invasive that “we were no longer able to even hear people at our table and barely could see our food.”
Johnson told NBC News on Friday that she was not made aware of the event before entering the restaurant. The Bowling Green resident said she heard actual gunshots in the videos and that they showed footage of Taylor’s body.
“Words can’t even describe how absolutely disgusting it is, what this group put on, the platform they gave him and what he showed to them,” Johnson said. “These women, they need to be held accountable. Not just Anna’s restaurant but the group themselves that put it on, and at the very least they need to apologize to the people that they offended, to Breonna Taylor’s family and, and the community honestly.”
The Bowling Green-Warrren County Branch of the NAACP also released a statement responding to the event calling it “beyond reprehensible” to expose patrons of color and even children to the graphic nature of this incident.
If you’re left flabbergasted by this, you’re not alone. Not only did this womens club not have the decency to find a private room for their little presentation but the restaurant also complied with Mattingly’s request to overhaul their audio system to play the sounds of someone getting killed. Make it make sense.
The length they went to support an ex-cop’s blue-lives-matter-self-defense testimony - one that has been dragged out for three years now - is truly disgusting.
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