‘Enough is enough’
Activists in Hartford demand justice for Breonna Taylor
Eleana Chandler and her two nieces were coming out of Burger King on Main Street in Hartford Saturday afternoon when they heard chants of “Black lives matter” and “Say her name.”
The women quickly abandoned their afternoon plans and joined about 50 other people, who were marching from the Capitol through the city’s downtown to protest a decision by a Kentucky grand jury not to charge any of the police officers who shot Breonna Taylor with her killing.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, and now I finally have the chance,” said Chandler, who is 21 and lives in Hartford. She said she felt compelled to join her first protest in honor of her grandmother, who often spoke of the racism she endured growing up in Alabama.
The rally is one of hundreds that have been held across the nation since Wednesday, when the attorney general of Kentucky announced that none of the three officers involved in Taylor’s case would be charged with her killing. (The only charges brought
by the grand jury were three counts of wanton endangerment against former officer Brett Hankison stemming from shots fired into the homes of Taylor’s neighbors.)
Taylor’s death — and the failure to hold police directly accountable for it — sparked anguish and anger and set off a wave of protests similar to the public outcry that followed the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police in May.
“We are human beings, and we are saying enough is enough,” Natalie Langlaise of Hartford told the crowd that gathered on the steps of the Capitol.
Langlaise clutched a bright yellow sign that read: “[We’re] tired of Black leaders who are silent. If they do not hear us, vote them out.”
“America is racist, point blank, period,” said Michael Oretade, the president of Black Lives Matter 860, the Hartford-based grassroots activist group that organized many of the anti-racism protests, including Saturday’s march.
But protests are only one part of the strategy, Oretade said. He
hopes to turn the outrage over the killings of Black men and women into political power.
“We’re all awake after George Floyd died,” he said, “We can’t go to sleep at this point.”
Black Lives Matter 860 is forming a series of committees to look at society’s structural inequities around the criminal justice system, housing and education, Oretade said.
“Activism has been tough on people,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know what to do next. They
see the [Breonna Taylor case] and they say, ‘Nothing’s ever going to change.’ But we’re trying to create the future.”
Chandler’s niece, 14-year-old Samara Edwards of Hartford, attended her first protest on Saturday, but she said it won’t be her last.
“It makes you feel good and shows that you care about your culture,” she said.
“It’s powerful,” added her sister, 16-year- old Raquel Edwards.