BLM Activists Demand Louisville Mayor Resign

Activists from the Louisville chapter of Black Lives Matter gathered on a virtual call Wednesday (September 23) to relay their demands of the city following yesterday’s announcement that the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor would not be charged with her death.

First on the list of demands: to immediately fire and revoke the pensions of the officers that murdered Breonna.

The next order of business is the resignation of Louisville mayor Greg Fischer.

“Greg Fischer must resign today, or we’ll make sure he gets up out of office,” said the BLM chapter’s co-founder Chanelle Helm, who wore a t-shirt that read “Greg Fischer doesn’t care about Black people.” According to Helm, Fisher has done “a sh**** job at representing what humanity can look like, a sh**** job at protecting Black women—not just Black people, Black women. And we will not continue to keep being stepped on in this city.”

Last week, the Louisville Metro Council passed a vote of no confidence in Fischer but provided him with a list of ways in which he could improve the council members’ support for his actions as mayor, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Helm and her colleagues, however, were not satisfied. “We’re not here asking for Greg Fischer to do what the city council says and, you know, maybe you can do better. I don’t trust white men to do great at all,” Helm said. “What we do need is for him to step out of office and resign.”

The other demands that BLM is making on the city include: divest from the Louisville Metro Police Department and invest in community building, ending the use of force by LMPD and police to ensure department investigations are transparent.

After midnight on March 13, three officers — Brett Hankison, Miles Cosgrove and John Mattingly executed a botched “no-knock” warrant at Taylor’s apartment (although the Kentucky Attorney General claimed the warrant was not a no-knock warrant and the police did announce their presence prior to barging into the apartment) which she shared with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker. Believing they were intruders, Walker fired his weapon and gunfire from the officers ensued. The 26-year old EMT was struck six times and died.

The police raid found no drugs at Taylor’s apartment and she was not the target of the investigation. Rather, it was her ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover who police were after. Glover had been arrested earlier that same night.

On Wednesday, Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron announced that none of the officers would face charges for killing Taylor. Only Brett Hankison was charged with “wanton endangerment” for firing his gun into the wall of Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment. Hankison was fired from the department in July. The others remain on duty.

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