Demonstrators lined streets in downtown Lexington Wednesday night, joining protesters in Louisville and major cities across the nation in expressing their dismay with a Kentucky grand jury decision in the Breonna Taylor case.
"I need y'all to feel it from your toes," one speaker urged the gathering audience. "Because this is for Breonna Taylor."
Frustration with the lack of direct charges in the Taylor case simmered in the state's second largest city, but speakers appealed to the crowd not to let the day's events lead to violence.
"They want us to act up. Because if we act up then they don't have to focus on the injustice that black and brown and poor and marginalized people are going through," the speaker said. "So we're not going to give it to them."
Organizers renewed their calls for police reforms and action on no-knock warrants, beyond the city's moratorium, before leading marchers numbering in the hundreds from the courthouse plaza around the center of the city with chants of "take back our streets."
The march came as Louisville faced more unrest, with two metro police officers sustaining non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. Media outlets reported at least 46 arrests.
For months, demonstrators have demanded the arrest of the officers involved in the Taylor shooting, but a grand jury decision led to the indictment of just one of the officers on three counts of wanton endangerment - none of which stemmed from Taylor's death.
"Take back our streets." Lexington protesters gather in the wake of the #BreonnaTaylor announcement. Here are some scenes and sound captured by WUKY's Arlo Barnette. pic.twitter.com/QnhjfSY5uN
— WUKY (@wuky) September 24, 2020