This past Saturday was the one year anniversary of Breonna Taylor's death at the hands of LMPD. To mark the occasion people took to the streets, here in Louisville and in cities across the country to remember Breonna and 'say her name'.
Several hundred people turned out here in Louisville for speeches, chanting, and marching.
After a hiatus for winter the memorial has returned to the park as well.
"Keep Going" seemed to be the theme of the day. With no end in sight and little in the way of real changes yet, it's easy to get discouraged.
Seeing so many people turn out (and so many familiar faces again) was a great morale boost though. We may be in this for the long haul but at least we have plenty of good company.
I don't think you could ask for a more glaring contrast than between the vibe in the park and all the dump trucks and concrete barricades that the city 'treated' us to. We had musical performances, they had snipers and spotlights on the rooftops..
Needless to say, the city's response has only given us added incentive to keep going. After a few hours of speakers and whatnot in the park it was marching time!
I've been on a march or two at this point but the only one I recall with a bigger turnout was the one around Churchill Downs during the Kentucky Derby (that one was 1000+ people).
One of our regular chants is "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, fuck 12!" (12 is slang/shorthand for the police) At this point there is a complete lack of trust between protesters and LMPD Accordingly, protesters provide their own security at the park and while out on marches.
You can hardly go marching and not have chants going! I don't know how it is elsewhere but that is just part and parcel of protesting/marching here.
The Kentucky General Assembly is in the process of making it illegal to insult a cop here in the commonwealth (hooray freedom!) so everyone was trying to get in extra helpings of abuse while they still could.
That's enough for one post but I've still got more photos from Saturday so stay tuned!