Protesters Confront Armed Militia in Louisville

LOUISVILLE—Protests over prosecutors failing to indict any cops for the March killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor flared up again here Thursday, even as the city was still picking up the pieces from an explosive night of violence and unrest.

Less than 24 hours after Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a conservative Trump ally, declined to charge officers for fatally shooting Taylor, a Black emergency medical worker, during a botched attempt to serve a warrant, activists were out in force in Jefferson Square Park.

Dozens cheered as protesters were released from a side door at the Department of Corrections adjacent the square—over 100 were arrested a night earlier—to chants of “You can’t stop the revolution,” and “Whose streets? Our streets” in call and reply.

In addition to trademark of police brutality protests in recent months like massarrests and pepper-spray being dispersed on activists, the Wednesday unrest in Louisville was marked by the non-fatal shooting of two officers. Both were expected to survive, and a 26-year-old suspect was in custody. But protesters weren’t exactly cowed.

“That shooting was wrong,” said Patrick McKinney, a Louisville native and teacher for kids with cognitive disabilities for Jefferson County Public Schools. But, he added, “we waited how many days to get a decision on her life? So whose life mattered more?”

Around 7:15 p.m., throngs of protesters stopped to confront armed members of the Oath Keepers—a far-right militia group—who said they had been asked to protect a gas station and pawn shop downtown. Activists got up in the heavily-armed mens’ faces.

“Women and children get to the back. They have firearms, serious firepower,” one organizer yelled.

This is a developing story and will be updated.