Louisville Police Ban Protests On Streets As Black Lives Matter Demonstrations Endure

Protests have continued for over 70 days in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, who was killed by Louisville officers in March.

Protesters stopped in the street outside city hall along 6th Street in downtown Louisville on Aug. 9, 2020. | Reuters
Protesters stopped in the street outside city hall along 6th Street in downtown Louisville on Aug. 9, 2020. | Reuters

Louisville police are cracking down on demonstrations around the city by banning all protest caravans and marches on public streets — but protesters have continued to march. 

Protests have continued for over 70 days in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and to demand justice for 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a licensed EMT who was shot and killed by Louisville officers in March. 

On Sunday, the Louisville Police Department announced that all pedestrians, including protesters, must stay on the city’s sidewalks, follow pedestrian traffic laws, and not block intersections for any period of time. The move followed an intense round of protests on Saturday that led to 12 arrests.

"We have seen increasingly unsafe behavior, including an escalation in aggressive behavior over the past week or so,” the department said on Twitter, adding that individuals who refuse to comply “will be eligible for citation and/or arrest.”

Despite the department’s announcement, marches continued in the city’s downtown area on Sunday night, the Courier Journal reported. Two people were arrested and six were issued citations, the Journal reported.

"The objective and the goal is to disrupt just as much as (police) disrupt people's lives," Chanelle Helm, a Black Lives Matter Louisville member, told the Journal a day earlier.

Protests against police brutality erupted in Louisville earlier in the year, following the deaths of Taylor as well as George Floyd, who died after a now-former Minneapolis officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Louisville police officers shot and killed Taylor, a 26-year-old licensed EMT, in March after forcing their way inside her home with a search warrant in a drug investigation. None of the police officers involved have been charged with a crime.

In the wake of her death, the city passed “Breonna’s Law” in June, which bans the use of no-knock warrants. Oprah Winfrey, who has been vocal about seeking justice for Taylor, has also set up 26 billboards (one for every year of Taylor’s life) around Louisville demanding that the three officers involved with her death be arrested and charged.