Simon & Schuster Has Decided to Drop the Book by One of the Cops Who Shot Breonna Taylor

Following public outcry, Simon & Schuster has decided not to distribute a forthcoming book by one of the Louisville police officers involved in shooting and killing 26-year-old medical worker Breonna Taylor, whose death last March has been held up as an example of how cops and the criminal justice system produces untold violence against Black Americans.

“Like much of the American public, earlier today Simon & Schuster learned of plans by distribution client Post Hill Press to publish a book by Jonathan Mattingly,” the publisher said in a statement to The New York Times on Thursday. “We have subsequently decided to not be involved in the distribution of this book.”

It’s an “extremely rare” move for a major distributor to decline to distribute a book on the basis of its content, according to the Times. The Tennessee-based Post Hill Press, which specializes in publishing Christian and conservative works with a political bent, still plans on publishing Mattingly’s book at press time.