Lightfoot: Breonna Taylor billboards are not political

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is using electronic billboards on city property to honor Breonna Taylor following protest sin Chicago this week in response to her fatal shooting by police in Louisville, saying the campaign on signs alongside local expressways is not politically motivated despite some aldermanic criticism.

The slogan “#SayHerName,” which many Taylor supporters have used to try to keep attention on her case, started appearing on digital billboards in Chicago after a grand jury in Kentucky opted thisweek not to indict any Louisville police officers in her death.

Taylor was fatally shot by an officer during an exchange of gunfire with her boyfriend in her apartment in March. The only indictment returned against an officer was for firing shots into an adjoining apartment. Lightfoot on Wednesday called the grand jury decision “a gross miscarriage of justice.”

In a statement, the mayor’s office likened the Taylor messages to public service announcements the city posts on the digital billboards.

“This week, the city’s social media channels and electronic billboards are honoring the life of Breonna Taylor and countless other victims of systemic injustice with the display #SayHerName,” the statement reads in part. “During a time of healing for Chicago’s residents, we are not going to dignify comments calling this effort ‘political.’ ”

But Northwest Side Ald. Nick Sposato, 38th, said the message honoring Taylor is controversial. “I’m very disappointed,” Sposato said. “I think this is a political statement, and we’re politicizing the tragic death of a young woman. We should be trying to heal as a city, rather than fanning the flames.”