Louisville
As disputes in cities across the United States continue to rage, armed police supporters and anti-racism demonstrators clashed in Louisville before the Kentucky Derby horse race. Consequently, Rochester police used tear gas to settle the situation.
In the afternoon, hundreds of protesters marched toward the Churchill Downs track in Lousiville chanting “No Justice, No Derby” — a nod to activists’ calls to cancel the annual race, which was being held without spectators because of the coronavirus.
Separately, roughly 250 members of a Black militia group named NFAC that has protested against the police killings of Black people assembled outside Churchill Downs, all armed with long guns.
NFAC leader John “Grandmaster Jay” Johnson taunted the officers standing guard in front of the track, but the group later retreated without incident.
Louisville has emerged as a key flashpoint in the summer of unrest because of outrage over the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was killed in March when the city’s police burst into her apartment using a so-called “no-knock” arrest warrant that did not require them to announce themselves.—Agencies
