Reverend Joseph Owens leads Shiloh Baptist on Main Street but today be preached from the steps of his church instead of at the pulpit. He was surrounded by other faith leaders; black, white, Asian, and from all religious backgrounds. He then led the flock to city hall and handed Mayor Linda Gorton a list of demands involving police procedures. On the list, the end to no-knock warrants. Owen said “Although not often used, the Lexington Police Department utilizes no-knock warrants. Like the ones used by Louisville Police when they broke into Breonna Taylor’s home unannounced. Certainly there may be investigative advantages to executing no-knock entries but as we have seen in Louisville, the potential foreseeable costs are far greater than to justify their continued use.”
In addition to asking for the elimination of those warrants, the group want all local law enforcement agencies to form independent review boards, that way if something goes wrong in the future in Lexington, the black community could trust the investigation. Owen also asked for white faith counterparts to step up. “Sadly some white faith leaders openly encourage the very status quo that perpetuates the malignant cancer of racism in our community.”
Owen said the time for talking is over. “Unless transformational progress begins immediately with regard to local law enforcement and local economic disparities, it is only a matter of time before local protests result in violence as they did with the protests of Antonia Sullivan's death in 1994.”
The list was also handed to Chief of Police Lawrence Weathers and Fayette County Sheriff Kathy Witt.