LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Stachelle Bussey and Antonio Taylor, two nominees to Louisville's new Civilian Review and Accountability Board, say they could serve effectively and objectively on that board, despite scrutiny some on Metro Council have given them after past social media posts surfaced.
Bussey is a minister and leader of a local nonprofit that helps the needy, the Hope Buss.
"Everything I do, I just, you know, want my community and my city to be better," said Bussey. "I represent those people who are underserved, who are under-resourced, who are drastically affected by policing."
Antonio Taylor is a bus driver with Jefferson County Public Schools and a radio host, who volunteers in several ways.
"I just adore Stachelle and the work that she does," Taylor said. "I'm like Stachelle. I'm very passionate about my community. I love doing this work."
But of the 11 nominees, Taylor and Bussey have come under fire and under scrutiny for past social media posts some on council consider anti-police, which, as they argued in a meeting last week, are problematic for nominees who will sit in judgement of police conduct and practices.
Ahead of a Thursday confirmation vote to either approve or deny them to the civilian review board, Taylor and Bussey agreed to better explain their posts and themselves.
In a past Facebook post, Bussey wrote, “I hate the police,” but she says those words, by themselves, don’t capture the context of the entire post which was a broader essay that questioned how criminals could be held accountable without police.
One of the posts by Stachelle Bussey, a civilian review board nominee. (Source: Councilman Anthony Piagentini)
"They focused on four words of probably a 400-word post," Bussey said Tuesday. "If we don't believe that these systems work for us, then what are we going to do to literally help our community?”
Meanwhile, Taylor’s post, which likened the Louisville Metro Police Department to the devil, was posted on the day of the 2020 Kentucky Derby, when the department was delayed in protecting protesters in Jefferson Square Park from counter-protesters.
One of the posts by Antonio Taylor, a civilian review board nominee. (Source: Councilman Anthony Piagentini)
"Many people could have died on that day, including myself," Taylor explained. "Those posts express a people that have been ignored. It's our language."
Tuesday, he pointed out other posts where he wished an interim LMPD chief well and another where he wrote that he was praying for LMPD officers during the May 28th riot.
"To say that we're anti-police, to say that we can't be unbiased, it's leading with a false narrative," Taylor said.
"Can you be objective?" WDRB News asked the two. "Can you call balls and strikes if you're on this civilian review board?"
"You can be objective and critical of a system at the same time," Taylor answered.
"Can I have an opinion? Yeah," Bussey added. "But can I be objective? Absolutely."
Ultimately, Taylor says if he and Bussey are not confirmed Thursday, the civilian review board will lose more than their faces. He believes it could lose some of its credibility and trust too.
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