With emotions still raw over the verdict exonerating police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the similar outcome Wednesday night in the case of Eric Garner has some Lexington residents ready to take to the streets again.
While the organizers behind last Tuesday's first major demonstration always envisioned their campaign as an ongoing one, the Garner verdict is recharging the debate and renewing calls for reform.
"We definitely feel like it's a systemic issue and not specific to just one case," April Taylor with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network tells WUKY.
The Nov. 25 rally organized by her organization attracted about 200 people, but she says she won't be surprised if that number grows this Saturday during the second planned protest.
"The more cases that there are, and especially the cases where there aren't indictments returned for there to even be the possibility of someone being criminally liable for taking another person's life, I think that is galvanizing more people to feel like they do have to stand up, that it's not just something they can continue to sit back and watch happen on the TV screen," Taylor says.
To that end, more events are already planned, including a candlelight vigil on Sunday and “die-in” at Fayette Mall on Dec. 12.
Taylor says her group has not been in direct dialogue with city police or the Urban County Government, but she hopes to open up a conversation in the coming weeks.
