Protesters march for woman killed by cops
LOUISVILLE: Demonstrators demanded justice and police reforms on Saturday as they marched on the one-year anniversary of the death of Breonna Taylor, a young black woman mistakenly shot and killed by officers during a raid of her apartment.
“We got two different Americas. We got one for black Americans and one for white Americans,” Benjamin Crump, an attorney representing Taylor’s family, told the crowd of hundreds here in Kentucky.
“We got to get justice for all our people in America.”
The deaths of Taylor and George Floyd, a black man who died under the knee of a policeman in Minneapolis, became a focus of a wave of protests last year against police abuses and racism in the United States.
On Saturday, Taylor’s mother Tamika Palmer led hundreds marching behind a large purple banner with an illustration of Taylor’s face, chanting “No justice, no peace.”
“It’s been a year and justice has not been served,” said Camille Bascus, 50, with tears in her eyes.
She said she had come here
from Atlanta, more than 650km away, “to represent the people without voices, because they no longer have a heartbeat. We have a voice and our lives matter”.
Taylor’s family and friends are now looking to the results of a federal probe, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation saying on Saturday its work was moving forward.
To settle a civil suit, Louisville authorities agreed to pay the Taylor family US$12 million and initiate police reforms.
For Bascus, that is not enough. It “doesn’t bring Breonna Taylor back”.