Back in late July, the NFAC (Not Fucking Around Coalition) militia came to town to demonstrate over the Breonna Taylor case. When news that they were coming got out, the Three Percenters announced that they were going to turn up in town at the same time. On the day they showed up LMPD shut down 5th Street for a few blocks and put up barricades across the intersection with Jefferson Street. They kept the two groups on separate sides of the intersection and everything went fairly smoothly, these photos come from a bit after the militias had departed and dispersed.
A few moments before these photos were taken I had been standing in the park at 6th and Jefferson when we heard a commotion from the intersection with 5th. Soon people came running from there into the park saying that the police had rushed the barricades and thrown a woman to the ground and arrested her. With that many headed back out into the street to face off with police.
Nobody was quite sure what was going on, protesters held signs and phones as they milled about a short distance from the police line. After a minute or two of this the police used the speaker in the van in the second photo to order us to disperse and clear the street or they would use chemical munitions on us.
The show of force, with all the guns and wooden clubs seemed both over the top and laughable. We'd not been seeking a confrontation and were in the dark as to why they'd suddenly come marching down the street with clubs and rifles but thought it pretty funny that they'd waited until after NFAC marched out to act like that...
When they ordered us out of the street we moved to the sidewalks instead. I ended up on the north side of the street with just a few other protesters. Worried that we'd get cut off from the main body of protesters and arrested, I headed back across the street but not before I stopped to snap one last shot. Apparently this was not appreciated, before I was done taking the photo the officer on the intercom was already hollering about "Get on the sidewalk and stay on the sidewalk!"
Nothing ever actually developed from the confrontation, eventually it sorta fizzled out and people wandered away but for a short while tensions and adrenaline were as high as the temperature. A little over a month later the militias both came back to town for the Kentucky Derby but there were no barricades or police until after the two groups met, which was an even more wild and intense situation at pretty much the exact same location, but that is another story.
