Police officers stand in front of an armored vehicle on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Protesters took to streets after Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s announcement to indict only one of the three LMPD officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor during a no-knock raid executed on her apartment on March 13, 2020.
Hulu is making a meaningful mea culpa.
The Disney-owned streaming service was called out on Twitter by users for promoting an episode of the FX docuseries titled “The New York Times Presents: The Killing of Breonna Taylor” on the same day that a Kentucky grand jury revealed their decision on whether or not to indict the police officers involved in the March 13 killing of the emergency medical technician while she slept in her bed.
The now-deleted post, which had a trailer attached, read: “Breonna Taylor’s life was changing. Then the police came to her door,” the tweet read. “#NYTPresents: The Killings of Breonna Taylor traces the missteps of the deadly raid. #FXonHulu.”
One Twitter user wrote: “The fact that this Breonna Taylor documentary is sitting here on the homepage of Hulu meanwhile her killers are free … it’s enraging. People are just making money off of her death.”
In a tweet shared late Wednesday, Hulu apologized for the poorly timed promotion.
The company wrote: “Earlier today, we promoted content that we felt would be meaningful in light of today’s events. That was, quite simply, the wrong call. We’ve taken the posts down and are deeply sorry. Thank you for holding us accountable — we will learn from this.”
Another tweeter blasted the company after the post.
“Y’all took ADVANTAGE of her name trending and HER STORY for YOUR RATINGS!!! If y’all wanted to do something meaningful you would have said JUSTICE FOR BREONNA TAYLOR,” the Twitter user posted. “Is her family even involved in this “documentary” or did y’all do this to hop on the “we care” trend?!?!”
Ultimately, the grand jury returned a three-count indictment against only one of the three officers involved — for shooting bullets into Taylor’s white neighbors’ apartment.
Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree, defined as exhibiting extreme indifference to human life.
He was released on $15,000 bond. The other two officers, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove were not indicted for any crime.
No one involved was charged with the 26-year-old Taylor’s death.