White women form an arm-in-arm shield to protect black protesters at the Louisville Metro Police
A group of white women formed an arm-in-arm barrier to protect black protestors gathered in front of the Louisville Metro Police.
On Thursday, Louisville residents witnessed a touching moment during an anti-police demonstration. Several white women formed a human shield at the Metro Police to protect a number of black protestors, as Up Worthy reports.
Photographer Tim Druck took images of the selfless act of alliance between the people of Louisville. The photographs capture the group of women who have formed up a line between the demonstrators and the police department.
Posted by Tim Druck on Friday, May 29, 2020
In an interview with Courier-Journal, the photographer reveals that the women gathered at the police station after the lead organizer for Black Lives Matter Louisville, Chanelle Helm, urged white protesters to use their privilege to protect those who are often victims of systemic racism. According to Druck, Helm said: “If you are going to be here, you should defend this space.” He explained:
“She was asking for white folks to use their privilege, and put their bodies between police and the other demonstrators. And people responded. They didn’t, they didn’t need to be convinced. Everybody willingly and enthusiastically did it.”
6th and Jefferson in Louisville. This is a line of white people forming a barrier between Black protestors and the…
Posted by Kentucky National Organization for Women on Thursday, May 28, 2020
Tim’s powerful photo of the human shield quickly went viral on social media after the Kentucky National Organization for Women shared it on Facebook. When posting the image, the organization captioned:
“This is a line of white people forming a barrier between Black protestors and the police. This is love. This is what you do with your privilege.”
Presently, there are a number of protests across the U.S. provoked by the brutal public killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Mr. Floyd was an African-American who was murdered by a white police officer who held his knee on Floyd’s neck until he was completely motionless. This tragic incident unleashed a wave of riots across the country.
But even before the death of George Floyd, citizens in Louisville, Kentucky have been raging over the killing of Breonna Taylor, an African-American medical worker. On March 13, the 26-year-old woman became a victim of another irrational police action – she was murdered by police officers who entered the wrong home. The cops shot the innocent EMT worker eight times.
This is Breonna Taylor.
She was a beloved Louisville EMT and a nurse who was fatally shot by police in her own home. She was hit 8X after cops entered w/o announcing themselves. A frontline worker, she was just 26 yrs old. Her family deserves justice.#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor pic.twitter.com/oMrYUDQfR9
— Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) May 12, 2020
Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping inside their apartment in Springfield when Louisville Metro Police officials attempted to execute a ‘no-knock’ search warrant.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming that three plainclothes officers opened the front door and ‘blindly’ opened fire into their apartment.
In the chaos, Walker thought their home is being invaded, so he had fired shots at the time, injuring an LMPD Sergeant. Initially, Breonna’s boyfriend was charged with the attempted murder of a police officer, but the charge has since been dropped. Sadly, the 26-year-old woman didn’t survive the vicious encounter.
Ben Crump, an attorney who is a part of the legal team representing Taylor’s family, said:
“Do African-Americans have a right to the Second Amendment? Doesn’t he have the right to stand his ground against people who he believes are burglarizing his home?”
Another tragic incident based on evident racism has enraged immense fury amongst U.S. citizens. On February 23, in Georgia, the innocent African-American jogger Ahmaud Arbery was unreasonably killed by two white men – a father and a son.
The attorney Crump, who also represented Arbery’s family, shares:
“While dismissing the charges is the right thing to do, it comes more than two months after Breonna was killed and Kenneth was arrested… Until everyone involved is held accountable and the full truth of what happened that night is revealed, justice for Kenneth and Breonna is incomplete.”
These ruthless murders set the whole country on fire, as many states were forced to activate their National Guard to help control the rioters.
Posted by Tim Druck on Friday, May 29, 2020
