I've been meaning to write a long form piece about the early days of the protests here in Louisville but until now have not been able to do so to my satisfaction. This will cover the first week or so of protests (which are still going on, 90+ days later), when it felt like the police had declared war on the city and the city wasn't backing down. This is by no means a complete coverage of the goings on here in Louisville but I will do my best to convey what it looked and felt like where I was. What I have seen on the local, state, and national media has not conveyed the events that I have witnessed and experienced very accurately, hopefully this will do some small bit to correct that.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, on March 13th of this year Breonna Taylor was shot to death in her own home by Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers Brett Hankinson, Myles Cosgrove, and Jonathan Mattingly. They were executing a "no knock" search warrant obtained with evidence that later investigation by local media found to be either dubious or entirely fraudulent, in relation to a suspect who was already in police custody at the time of the raid. Breonna and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker were awakened by the police beating on the door and after hearing no response to his yells of "Who is it?" Walker fired a single shot at what he believed were intruders, whereupon the three LMPD officers wildly fired over 20 rounds (according to recent news it was more like 35 to 45 rounds, neighbors reported hearing yells of "reload") into the apartment, striking Breonna eight times. The only officer fired so far reportedly shot blindly into the apartment with no chance of even seeing what he was shooting at. LMPD claims that none of the officers were wearing bodycams, so there is no video footage (lawyers for Taylor's family are disputing this in court).
From the tidbits of information that has since trickled out it seems like LMPD has engaged in a deliberate coverup from the outset. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting little information or media coverage was available, it was some time before I became aware of what had transpired. Not until a judge forced LMPD to release the 911 tapes of Walker's calls that night (in between calling out to Breonna and calling her mother) that a fuller picture emerged. Later, LMPD would release the incident report from that night that was mostly blank, and much of the limited information it contained completely false. They claimed in it that there had been no injuries, despite Breonna being shot eight times, as well as no forced entry, despite them using a 50 lb key (battering ram) to enter her apartment.
With the release of the 911 tapes public outcry grew such that charges against Walker were dismissed (they can still be brought again though, I want to know why the NRA isn't defending this classic use of KY's "Stand Your Ground" law) and he was released. Shortly thereafter George Floyd was murdered and the long, hot summer of 2020 started to warm up rather quickly. This brings us to May 28th, the first day protests erupted here in Louisville.
The first night of the protests I was not present for, I didn't find out about them until afterwards, so I have no photos to share from that night. Seven people were shot that night and then LMPD tear gassed them and the street medics treating them (none fatally fortunately). LMPD claims not to have fired the shots and to have no suspects (they can solve who looted a pharmacy but not who opened up on protesters...) but my friends who were there are convinced it came from the cops.
On the 29th of May I awoke blithely unaware of what had transpired and unsuspecting of what was to come. Between reading the news and a friend sending me the flyer above it quickly became apparent that the anger that had been growing more and more palpable had burst forth into the streets.
While I was annoyed and disappointed that I'd missed the first protests I was determined to make up for this and made plans with my pandemic partner to attend the next ones. Much of the rest of the day was spent prepping my camera and gear and impatiently waiting for the evening's events. Finally, the time was upon us, we parked a bit outside of the downtown area and hiked in towards the protest (LMPD has a fondness for shutting down the streets around the protests and it's hard to do the bugout boogie if your wheels are trapped).
The first thing we noticed as we hiked in was the multitude of helicopters circling overhead. There were at least four choppers circling downtown, one from the state police, LMPD's chopper, a local news one, and one who's origin and purpose was never clear. As we got closer to the part of downtown where the protests have been centered we noticed more and more people doing the same as us, filtering into downtown in twos and threes (we even ran into several groups of people we knew). The tension in the air was almost palpable, by this point LMPD had blocked the streets downtown and between that and the aircraft overhead it definitely felt like they were looking for a confrontation.
We never actually made it to where the flyer told us to go, when we got to Jefferson Square Park we found a large crowd already gathered there and joined them. This park is surrounded by the jail, courthouse, city hall, and the mayor's office and has been something of a hub for the ongoing protests. The crowd filled much of the park and the streets surrounding it, and while obviously angry, chanting and holding signs were the main means of expressing this.
For a while people mostly milled about, this was largely a leaderless and spontaneous expression of the city's anger and frustration. As darkness fell the tension, already at what I thought was the max setting increased further, with several mini stampedes prompted by a loud noise or seemingly nothing at all. Slowly, the crowd drifted from the intersection by the courthouse to the one in front of the jail, still holding signs and chanting.
At this point I made the mistake of making a comment to a friend I'd ran into down there about LMPD's apparent restraint. Apparently I jinxed us because seconds later all hell broke loose. Without warning flashbangs started exploding and the tear gas started flying, and amid inarticulate screams and yells of "Fuck the police!" much of the crowd fled the intersection. (I was not on the receiving end of any but LMPD was also firing pepper balls and possibly rubber bullets/baton rounds as well).
I fell back into the park just far enough to be clear of the clouds of tear gas (so I thought, it wasn't) and attempted to photograph the apocalyptic scenes around me. Between the eerie illumination from the flashing police lights and the wafting clouds of tear gas and smoke, the cacophony of cries and the chaotic flight of the crowd it seemed like we had been transported to some circle of hell.
The closest approximation I have for being exposed to tear gas is how it feels if you rub your eyes after handling jalapenos, except its your whole face burning. We began to move away from this intersection only to find that the police were setting up in all of them around the park.
After getting our fill of tear gas for one night we decided to do the bugout boogie before we all ended up in jail or the hospital. The chaos continued for several more hours downtown, my roommate stuck around and took a pepper ball to the arm for his trouble. We made it back home safely and glanced at the news in time to see a news crew we'd passed shortly before getting deliberately shot with pepper balls while live on the air.
The next day we awoke to discover that the National Guard had been called in and that we now had a curfew. That afternoon I connected with my brother and we went back out. From a Facebook livestream we learned there was a march heading up Bardstown Road (if you are looking for a bar or good restaurant Bardstown Road is the place to go in Louisville) so we headed that way.
We'd had the bright idea to park further down the march's route and then hike up the street to meet it. Unfortunately LMPD had the same idea and they got a head start on us, by the time we found the march LMPD had too and were between us and it (they'd also shut down the road for several blocks). I did manage to get right up on the police line to take some photos (they sometimes get really excited when you approach the line and when they get excited it usually hurts) but we weren't able to get through to the protest.
Not being able to get through the cops and feeling a bit exposed with very few people around aside from the cops we decided to backtrack a bit and see if we couldn't circle around and get on the other side with the protesters. Our string of "Well, that didn't work" continued here, by the time we'd made the circle the march had went elsewhere and wasn't to be seen. While trying to figure out what to do next we received messages and video from friends protesting downtown saying that downtown was a trap and that they were being kettled (when the police cut off all the exits and trap people) and showing them on the receiving end of tear gas and pepper balls. With downtown apparently a trap, curfew in effect, and still feeling the effects of the night before we called it an evening and made our way back home.
I live about three miles from downtown, even that far away I could hear the booms from the flashbangs and fireworks and the wop-wop of the helicopter rotors until well into the wee hours of the morning. At this point it felt like the city was divided into two camps, the police vs everybody else, everywhere you looked it seemed like you saw either "Fuck 12" or "ACAB" and the businesses that were open were donating their profits to the bail funds for getting protesters out of jail.
If I have done a poor job of conveying why people were angry and out in the streets, look up what happened to Shannyn Sharyse Nara (warning, the images are graphic). She was downtown where all the booms I was hearing were and lost a chunk of her forehead thanks to a police round of some sort. She's been downtown to the protests since she got out of the hospital but from the looks of it, some of the damage is permanent.
Sunday, May 31st dawned hot and humid, as it is prone to do here in Kentucky. I went downtown bright and early to survey the damage and try and find the day's actions. The above photo happened when they approached me and requested that I take their photo. As I wandered downtown I was quite amused to discover that despite all the noise out of the mayor and media about rioters and destruction, about the only things damaged was the corporate crap that locals have long avoided like the plague (I was slightly disappointed, I'd hoped that covid would finally put them out of business and was afraid that insurance money might preclude this) and some plastic inserts in the garbage cans. I saw multiple business that were untouched and protected solely by a "Black Owned Business" sign (everything else around them was boarded up, not sure if this was a precaution or because they'd been damaged) as well as a complete lack of torched buildings.
After an hour or two of wandering downtown I still hadn't found any protests to join, that lasted until I realized that all I had to do was follow the helicopters and that quickly remedied the situation. Once again I found myself on the wrong side of the line armored up cops, except this time they were much more agitated and aggressive. At the time there were only a few dozen protesters marching down Main Street, heavily outnumbered by police and National Guard following (many of whom were carrying AR-15s/M-16s with mags in'em and backed by Humvees, unmarked cars, mounted cops, and LMPD's Special Response Team vehicle) and threatening them with chemical weapons.
While following the police line one of the cops in the SRT van yelled at me to say back from it. Throwing him a thumbs up I started to drop back, only to have another swerve his cruiser up onto the sidewalk at me less than a minute later and start screaming at me. After apparently exhausting his lungs he pulled back out in the road, only to repeat his actions a couple more times in the next few minutes. The last of these the protester was having a calm conversation with another officer when he attempted to butt in and scream at him. It took the other officer telling him multiple times to go away before he stopped and went back out into the road and stayed there (the last couple times he'd swerved onto the sidewalk he'd nearly hit multiple people with his car).
The situation eventually turned into a tense standoff, with protesters on one side of an intersection and LMPD and the Guard on the other, still using the bullhorn on the SRT van to threaten them with chemical weapons if they didn't disperse (LMPD referred to them as such, this isn't hyperbole). I was finally able to get around the police line and join up with the protest at this point, that's where the lead photo of this piece was taken.
The standoff dragged on long enough that the adrenaline levels started to decline a bit, some of the protesters broke off and went to the Muhammad Ali Center (just down the street on the far side of the car in the photo above) and a little while after the police moved out of Main Street and blocked the side street I'd taken the last photo from instead. This allowed traffic to once again move down Main and very quickly a caravan formed to circle the block, yelling and chanting at the police each time they passed and occasionally stopping to hand out food and water to us.
When the ones who'd went to the Muhammad Ali Center came back they brought a lot more people with them, those of us still in the intersection joined in as they marched straight towards the police vehicles blocking the street. I don't know if somebody ordered LMPD to stand down but they let us pass through and tensions started cool a bit as we began marching about downtown.
How many tax dollars is he festooned with?
Marching and protesting are a whole lot more low key when there's no cops around. We marched for a while, unhindered by law enforcement (they were stalking us with a drone and helicopters instead) and the biggest excitement we had was dealing with a lit highway flare that some asshole in a vehicle had tossed out.
As we marched we would stop in just about every intersection we passed to let people in the back catch up and give the ones leading time to speak. When they weren't talking about what we were doing and what we were trying to accomplish (or leading chants) they were reminding us to keep everything peaceful and to keep an eye out to make sure everyone else did the same (the dude who tossed the highway flare got a talking to over that).
Just as I was starting to think that they might actually let a peaceful march march peacefully, LMPD had to cure me of my optimism. Shortly after the photo above was taken, just as we were starting to approach Broadway, a thin line of 15-20 cops in riot gear come running from behind a building and block the intersection. I've had the dubious honor of staring down the muzzle of a gun more than once but that still don't hold a candle to looking down the muzzle of a tear gas launcher in the hands of a visibly nervous and badly outnumbered cop. What had been a rather calm situation changed in a matter of seconds into an incredibly tense one.
While tensions and adrenaline skyrocketed nobody got out of hand. We stopped short of the police line and expressed ourselves in a variety of nonviolent ways. Several people stood out in front with their backs to the police to keep people from getting too close to the police and giving them an excuse to attack while others spoke to the march using megaphones. After a bit of this LMPD backed off and then eventually moved out of the way and let us pass.
For much the rest of the evening, until shortly before dark we marched through downtown Louisville. Aside from the omnipresent drone and helicopters we largely escaped harassment and eventually made our way back to Jefferson Square Park.
Shortly after the photo above I ran out of ammo and had to stop shooting (I think I took a thousand shots that day) for the day. By this point the heat and the miles covered had taken a toll on me and I was exhausted so I slipped out of downtown and headed home. The next photo I took with my phone on the way out of downtown and although I didn't realize it at the time, probably foreshadowed the events that were to come later that night.
Although the curfew was still in effect we had figured out by now that it was only being enforced downtown and then only if you didn't (or couldn't) run from the police. Late Sunday night, for reasons that still lack a good explanation, LMPD and the National Guard deployed to 26th and Broadway, ostensibly for curfew enforcement. The Guard wasn't even supposed to be in the West End (the local term for that section of town), 20+ blocks away from where the protests had been taking place and the results of their foray showed that there was good cause for that restriction.
A regular weekly community gathering unconnected to the protests was going on when LMPD and the Guard arrived. They then opened up, rushing in firing pepper balls initially before switching to live rounds. When the shooting stopped David McAtee, local businessman, chef, and owner of YaYa's BBQ Shack (located there at 26th and Broadway), lay dead on the ground. McAtee was a well known figure in the community who gave free meals at his restaurant to first responders and those suffering through hard times. LMPD then proceeded to leave his body lying in the street for over 12 hours, much of which they spent with weapons in hand (the shooting happened around midnight, his body was still there when I woke up the next morning and started watching the livestream from the scene).
As news of what had transpired trickled out on Monday, Kentucky's governor demanded that LMPD release the bodycam footage of the shooting within 24 hours. This time LMPD claimed that the bodycams were deactivated and that once again there was conveniently no video footage of the shooting. Words do not do justice to the depth of the anger and emotion that these events aroused in the city. Louisville's mayor then announced that he firing the police chief, which was a complete joke as Chief Conrad had already announced that he was retiring at the end of the month.
By Monday afternoon the city of Louisville was up in arms (both literally and figuratively, this was the first day I spotted any protesters carrying guns) over the events of the past few days, I had people I hadn't heard from in years getting in touch with me to find out how to join in the protests. By this point all you had to do to find one was head down to Jefferson Square Park and one would find you if you didn't find it first. Monday afternoon I headed back to the park but found the march in the photo above before I made it there.
The march went up to Broadway and then headed to 26th Street, largely unhindered by the cops aside from the constant shadowing by aircraft. The only major excitement was when a woman drove up to the march and warned us that the Guard was waiting to arrest us at 26th (we ultimately arrived there right as curfew was going into effect) but after a momentary discussion we continued on to our destination.
When we arrived at 26th there was no National Guard, just lots of people. As the crowd from the march packed in people took turns speaking and then a prayer was said for Breonna and David. It was a combination of protest, with the speakers expressing the anger and rage about the events of recent days and also the long history of past outrages, as well as memorial for David McAtee, with people retelling fond memories of him and expressing the grief of his loss. With a final word about not tearing things up we headed back to Jefferson Square Park to see what the night would bring.
The march back was uneventful, aside from vehicles pulling up to hand out boxes of pizza and bottles of water. Arriving back in the park the night took on a weird vibe, half street party and half waiting on the place to turn into a warzone. We were informed (incorrectly it turned out) that Trump had invoked the Insurrection Act and that the Guard would be firing live rounds that night. The police and Guard snipers posted up on the rooftops of all the buildings surrounding the park only served to make the feeling that the government had declared war us all the more forceful.
Things were not helped by seeing all the press wandering around dressed like they were heading to a combat zone. I think eventually LMPD tired of seeing us having any sort of fun and came rushing in, setting off a bunch of flashbangs and then a few minutes later cutting loose with the tear gas. Some people stuck around the park to delay them (nonviolently, they simply refused to move) while the rest of did the bugout boogie. I managed to make it out of downtown just as LMPD in riot gear and the Guard was sealing off the streets with Humvees and trucks.
This brings me to the end of this part, it was only a few days but each one seemed like a year. After this night the governor pulled almost all of the National Guard out of the city and the mayor restricted LMPD's ability to use tear gas (this had more to do with bad optics than bad policing) and guess what? The level of conflict and tension dropped dramatically (it's almost like LMPD was intentionally instigating all the turmoil) and hasn't approached that of the first few days since.
As I'm finishing this the Kentucky Derby is less than 24 hours away, there are "No Justice No Derby" signs all around town, we have the NFAC and some far right wing militias coming to town, as well as some outright white supremacists coming to town, so tomorrow should be a bit interesting. Unless something drastic happens my pandemic partner and I will most likely be in the thick of whatever happens so send us and everybody else in the city some thoughts of safety if you have any to spare.