Several protests have appeared in Carrollton, KY, since news broke that the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office has hired former Louisville Metro Police Department Officer Myles Cosgrove. Cosgrove, who was fired after global public backlash, had fired 16 rounds into Breonna Taylor’s apartment and likely fired the lethal round in the raid that would lead to the murder of Breonna Taylor. The FBI had discovered that the warrant was served under false pretenses. Root Cause Research Center identified a link between the raid and several developers and financiers seeking to capitalize on the low-cost real estate in the West End of Louisville. In response to questions, the Sheriff’s Office stated he was never indicted, and his Peace Officer Certification was not revoked.
Residents responded with protests, specifically with the goal of his removal. Comments by participants indicate they feel Cosgrove failed to receive repercussions for his involvement in the raid in Louisville. The Communist Party USA’s presence in Kentucky had been following the protests and reached out to the community with the following statement:
“In light of the movement that has sprung up in Carrol County to protest the employment of Myles Cosgrove, an officer involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor, we wish to voice our support to these protesters. We also believe it essential to state that Myles Cosgrove isn’t simply one lousy officer or one of many but the product of a system that creates these officers and the circumstances with which they develop into vehicles of terror. We must also analyze the circumstances and craft demands and objectives that will ultimately lead to a complete restructuring of society, prisons, and law enforcement.
The entire existence of the police force is to act as the frontline for the capitalist state, to maintain the domination of the working and oppressed masses through violence. The demeanor and actions of one, two, or even dozens of bourgeois police are irrelevant as the needs of the class structure dictate their role, which is an inescapable fact. Many workers in Louisville, some of who would go on to join the CPUSA, saw the most brazen of this violence by the state firsthand during the 2020 uprisings. Finally, it is this relationship with capital that this murder took place as financiers and business people were looking to displace much of the black population in Louisville and acquire cheap real estate to be turned into profit, leading to sidestepping regulations and increasing violence community members experienced. If one thing is sure, we cannot settle for reform if we wish to seek a total foundational upheaval of this system, and that revolution is a necessity.
As we have already begun work in Louisville to build a movement to tackle bourgeois police terror, we wish to reiterate our demands.
1. The reorientation of the movement against police violence and the prison industrial complex from one of reform to one of revolution
2. The replacement of the capitalist state with a socialist state
3. The replacement of capitalist-class police with working-class methods of law-enforcement and community control
We support the protests against Myles Cosgrove’s employment, but this is not our goal. Our support is on the basis that we seek to build a world where bourgeois police terror ceases to exist and is replaced with a society led by the working class, who will control how law enforcement is handled. Law enforcement that doesn’t seek to preserve property relations and protect our oppressors but seeks to defend a revolutionary society and create safer communities.”
Time will tell if the protests maintain the momentum necessary to win the removal of Cosgrove. In the meantime, residents will wonder when the next incident might occur, whether it be from Cosgrove or any other officer in the Sheriff’s Office that hired him. But what is clear is the pattern of protecting officers and relocating them is systemic and that the struggle against capitalist police oppression will not end with ending one cop’s career, but when law enforcement sits in the hands of the working class.
–Jane Reed
Citations
Lovan, D. (2023, April 24). Ex-officer who fatally shot Breonna Taylor hired as a deputy. AP NEWS. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://apnews.com/article/myles-cosgrove-breonna-taylor-carroll-county-e2f4e1ab40b8982cdcb1e1b3e260f62c
Morales, M., & Alvarado, C. (2023, April 25). Officer who fired fatal shot in Breonna Taylor botched raid hired by a nearby County Sheriff’s Office. CNN. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/24/us/breonna-taylor-officer-hired/index.html
Center, R. C. R. (2021, November 18). Property and policing in Louisville, KY. ArcGIS StoryMaps. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4add4e9971c44b7e80d20d22671b6973
Authors are anonymous through the Root Cause Research Center full article is accesses through their website via https://www.rootcauseresearch.org/copy-of-lmpd-gun-violence through clicking story map
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