In Breonna Taylor’s Louisville, anger fuels demand for change

Louisville, Kentucky – It had only been a day since Louisville, Kentucky, learned there would be no murder charges in the police killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old unarmed Black woman, and more than 200 demonstrators were back in the square that has been the centre of 120 consecutive days of protests. Many talked among themselves. Every few minutes, someone led a chant, “Say her name.” “Breonna Taylor,” the crowd shouted back. At 8pm, long high-pitched alerts echoed from phones throughout the square: a one-hour warning before the mayor-issued curfew would take effect. A few minutes later, a woman on a megaphone told protesters to get ready to march. The night before, different groups got split up, according to one protester, resulting in the arrests of several dozen after the curfew began. On last Thursday night, they were not taking any chances. “We’re going down a new route,” the woman on the megaphone announced. “Stay together,” she said. The group then headed out. Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot dead by police on March 13 [Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath/Al Jazeera]Protests have rocked the city since late May when demonstrations erupted across the country over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In Louisville, it is the name of Taylor, who was shot dead by police on March 13, at the forefront. A grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict the three Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers who fired into Taylor’s apartment on charges directly related to her death. Instead, it indicted former officer Brett Hankison, who was fired in June, on three counts of wanton endangerment for “blindly” shooting into a neighbouring apartment. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a news conference the other officers who fired their weapons were justified in their actions because Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, fired the first shot. Walker has said he mistook police, who barged through the door while serving a “no-knock” warrant, for intruders. The highly-anticipated decision left protesters angry and in tears. But the feeling of dejection quickly turned to motivation as they charted a path forward. In 24 hours following the grand jury’s decision, those next steps began to take shape: protesters and leaders pledged to stay in the streets, called on local legislators to change policies that they say led to Taylor’s death, demanded increased investment in impoverished neighbourhoods, and urged residents to vote. New strategies As demonstrators marched in Louisville on Thursday night, organisers were already adapting and changing their strategies. “Whose streets? Our streets,” the group chanted as it weaved through the city’s downtown core. At one point, those in the lead pack who knew the march plan spotted police, dressed in riot gear, running along the city block where the group was headed. The organisers quickly switched course. They appeared to do the same on several occasions, including cutting through a McDonald’s parking lot to avoid an intersection blocked by police. Just before 9pm, they headed towards First Unitarian Church. This is a “sanctuary space”, pastors and others told the marchers, welcoming them to the place of worship where the curfew did not apply. As what appeared to be the last of the marchers made their way onto the church grounds, phones buzzed again with an emergency notification: “Louisville Metro is now under curfew until 6:30am. Please be heading home.” A police line stands behind a sign outlining the history of the First Unitarian Church, where protesters sought refuge in downtown Louisville [Chris Kenning/Al Jazeera]Protesters used the restrooms and grabbed food and water. A loud commotion then ensued. “Oh s***,” one protester said. Police marched down an alleyway towards the church where dozens stood crammed together. It was quickly apparent that the church was more or less surrounded, and protesters would be in for a long night. Soon, whispers of “they got Attica” could be heard in the crowd. Nearby, police had arrested Attica Scott, Kentucky’s only Black female state legislator. “I did not understand what was happening,” Scott later told Al Jazeera. “It wasn’t even nine o’clock yet,” she said. “They literally rushed us, ‘yelled, circle them, circle them’ so that we couldn’t even get to our cars or across the street to the church for sanctuary.” Scott, who did not march with the protesters, said she was walking near the church with her 19-year-old daughter and others when police encircled them. They were taken into custody and charged with first-degree rioting – a felony – along with failure to disperse and unlawful assembly, both misdemeanours, according to a police spokesman. Police claim Scott and others “caused extreme damage at multiple locations including setting fire to the Louisville Public Library”, according to the arrest citation shared by local media – an allegation Scott dismissed as “frivolous”. “It was clear that [police] were targeting leaders,” she said, pointing to Shameka Parrish-Wright, the site manager of the Louisville Bail Project, and Donny Greene, the co-founder of Feed Louisville, who were arrested alongside Scott. New legislation, more investment Scott has been at the forefront of the recent protest movement since it began. Authoring a bill called “Breonna’s Law”, she is now leading an effort at the state level to ban “no-knock” warrants like the one used the night Taylor was killed. Pushing through this kind of legislation is one way Scott and other city and state leaders see a way forward for the movement. Scott said in addition to Breonna’s Law, she and her colleagues are working on other initiatives, including legislation that would require independent investigations for police killings. Activists have already seen some victories at the hyper-local level with a city-wide ban on “no-knock” warrants and other promised police reforms. But politicians, including Jecorey Arthur, who grew up and continues to live in one of Louisville’s predominantly Black neighbourhoods, say measures must go beyond police reforms. The 28-year-old Democrat says when he takes his Metro Council seat in January, he will focus on economic development in the city’s mostly-Black areas, including the West End. “The policies that I’m thinking about are wealth-building policies, so that we don’t have to resort or don’t feel like we need to resort to a life of crime, which of course attracts police to our neighbourhoods,” he told Al Jazeera. He also wants the city to allocate more funds to neighbourhoods such as the West End that experience higher levels of poverty. Back at the church on Thursday night, protesters agreed: without investment in the city’s predominantly Black neighbourhoods – which are the product of a long history of codified and informal segregation – true change would be impossible. “Come clean up the West End,” Jomikha McGee said as she and other protesters remained holed up at the church. “Clean this s*** up. We need to do something,” the 28-year-old told Al Jazeera, comparing the city’s West End and downtown area to predominantly white areas of town. “This ain’t right.” style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">