Protesters in Louisville Continue to Stand Up Against Violent Pigs and Fascists...

People Rage Nationwide Against Heartless Murder of Breonna Taylor

Updated | revcom.us

 

On Friday night, September 25, Breonna Taylor’s name rang out in the streets as people poured out in Louisville and in many cities across the country—for a third day after the announcement on Wednesday that a grand jury decided no charges will be filed against any cop for murdering Breonna in cold blood.1 In Louisville, the protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, but the police and city authorities have come down with outrageous repression. Curfews have been declared, and the police have labeled groups of protesters they target as an “unlawful assembly” to justify cracking down violently. Groups of heavily armed white fascists have been going around openly in the city streets. On Thursday, one of the more than 125 arrested was Attica Scott, the only Black woman in the Kentucky state legislature. Police swept Scott and others off the streets as they approached the First Unitarian Church, which was offering sanctuary to protesters. Scott, charged with felony first-degree “riot,” was out in the streets the next day with hundreds of others.

In New York City, hundreds marched in Brooklyn and Manhattan, at one point stopping traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. Thousands took to the streets in Boston; one marcher said, “It makes me sick to see my sisters gunned down, in the streets, in their homes, while their murderers walk away free—free to continue to terrorize our neighborhoods.”

People continued to take to the streets on Saturday, September 26. In Louisville, a diverse crowd of about 500 marched, and as the 9 pm curfew approached, the police announced that anyone who remained at Jefferson Square Park would be arrested. Some went to the First Unitarian church that has been acting as sanctuary for protesters. The police arrested about 25 people. One protester said, “Since when does protest have a curfew? Since when does freedom and civil rights have a curfew?”

In New York City, hundreds gathered at the Barclay Center again and then marched across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. At Washington Square Park, riot pigs attacked a few dozen people who were playing music and dancing as their way of peacefully protesting. After the police seized their sound equipment, people marched to the 6th Precinct station where they were met by a large group of pigs who attacked protesters. According to witnesses and video footage, dozens of pigs charged into protesters near an intersection without any apparent provocation, taking a dozen or so into custody and arresting four.

Other larger marches and rallies took place Portland, Oregon; Nashville, Tennessee; Chicago; Washington, DC; Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City; Boston; and Baltimore. There were smaller demonstrations in Sacramento, California; Worcester, Massachusetts; Greenville, South Carolina; Poughkeepsie, New York; Akron, Ohio; Daytona Beach, Florida; and more.

As revcom.us said about the non-indictment of the murdering pigs, “It is hurtful beyond hurting, enraging beyond rage, to see this injustice happen yet again.” Tamika Palmer, Breonna’s mother, said in a statement about the police, “What [Cameron] helped me realize was that it will always be ‘us against them’—that we are never safe when it comes to them. Mattingly [one of the cops involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor], in an e-mail, called us ‘animals’ and ‘thugs.’ It’s clear that that is the way they will always see us.”

In a press conference on Friday, Benjamin Crump, one of the attorneys on the Breonna Taylor family’s legal team, described the pledges of support that have flowed in from many other families of victims of police and racist murder: among them, George Floyd, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Dijon Kizzee. Jacob Blake Sr., whose son is recovering from seven bullets fired into his back by Kenosha, Wisconsin,  police, attended the press conference in person.

Demand for the Truth About the Outrageous Grand Jury Decision

One of the key demands raised by the Breonna Taylor family’s lawyers and by protesters broadly is that Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron release the actual proceedings of the grand jury in coming up with their outrageous decision. Cameron was the special prosecutor that “presented” the case before the grand jury.

Benjamin Crump said at the Friday press conference, “Did [Cameron] present any evidence on Breonna’s behalf? Or did he make a unilateral decision to put his thumb on the scales of justice to help exonerate and justify the killing of Breonna Taylor by these police officers, and in doing so, make sure that Breonna Taylor’s family never got their day in court, never got their chance for due process, and in essence, denied them justice?”

Crump went on to say, “We question what evidence did the Kentucky attorney general send to the grand jury. Did he tell them about the probable cause affidavit that had a lie2 on the affidavit which was the basis for which the judge signed this no-knock warrant in the first place to allow them to be at Breonna’s apartment and bust open her door? Because if he didn’t send that... well, what did he argue on behalf of Breonna’s behalf?

“Did he tell them about the 12 neighbors that Sam Aguilar’s office [legal team involved in the Breonna Taylor family’s civil suit against the city] interviewed and recorded that lived in close proximity of Breonna’s apartment that all said they did not hear the police knock and announce their presence? Did he let them testify before the grand jury? Did he allow the one neighbor who they keep proclaiming that heard the police knock and announce, testify before the grand jury, even though... on two previous occasions, he declared that he did not hear the police knock and announce?...

“Did he let cops who shot over 30 rounds of bullets in Breonna’s apartment, one from outside the apartment shooting recklessly and blindly, and the others who shot bullets into her body, did he allow them to testify before the grand jury? Did he allow Breonna’s boyfriend, Kenny Walker,3 to testify before the grand jury?

“Did he talk about them sending the ambulance away before they executed this no-knock warrant, violating their own policies and procedures, knowing that these no-knock warrants are dangerous? And it was foreseeable that somebody could be injured, a citizen or police or third party innocent bystander, like Breonna Taylor, who lived in that apartment, who had every right to be legally in that apartment, who did not have a gun, who was only clothed in her nightclothes and had every right to live and breathe in her apartment? Did he present that to the grand jury? If he didn’t present these things to the grand jury, what kind of sham grand jury proceeding was this?”

***

Murder after murder of Black, Brown, and Native American people by police and racists... and the killer pigs walking away free time after time—all this is INTOLERABLE. And it is deeply righteous—and absolutely necessary—for people to be in the streets day after day, in determined struggle, against this injustice.

 

1. The one pig, among the three directly involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, indicted for anything was charged with “wanton endangerment,” for firing blindly from outside Breonna’s apartment through a covered window.  [back]

2. A detective who obtained the warrant used by cops against Breonna Taylor claimed that he had verified with a U.S. Postal Service inspector that Taylor had been receiving packages on behalf of a former boyfriend, who was a police target in a drug case. But this claim was shown to be false.  [back]

3. Walker was in the apartment with Breonna when they were woken up by what they thought were home invaders forcing their way in through their door. Walker insists that he and Breonna did not hear the police announce themselves before suddenly bursting into the apartment.  [back]


Louisville, Friday, September 25. Photo: AP


Press Conference, September 25 with the family of Breonna Taylor and Benjamin Crump, their attorney. AP photo

RACIAL OPPRESSION
CAN BE ENDED—
BUT NOT UNDER
THIS SYSTEM
by Bob Avakian

Read more


Brooklyn Bridge, NYC, September 25.


Louisville, September 26. (Photo: Max Gersh/Courier Journal)

 

 

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