Louisville (US), Sep 26: A Kentucky lawmaker, who spent a night in jail after her arrest during protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, said on Friday that she will redouble her push for criminal justice reforms.
State Rep. Attica Scott was arrested and charged on Thursday evening with first-degree rioting, a felony, and two misdemeanour counts: unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. The Black lawmaker on Friday called the charges “ludicrous” and said those arrested were “traumatised” by Louisville police.
“Right now, I am very disgusted and angry that LMPD (Louisville Metro Police Department) would levy these false charges against me … And other folks,” Scott told reporters.
While protesting again on Friday night, Scott told a reporter her arrest was terrifying.
She was live-streaming at the time, and saying: “They are going to kill us, they want to kill us,” and she believed that.
They marched through the city streets peacefully on Friday night, and as they neared an intersection, it was jammed with police cars. Suddenly, officers in riot gear appeared, holding batons, and they fired flash bangs at the crowd. Few knew what was happening or what caused the police to suddenly intervene.
The terror of the night before came surging back for Scott. Officers were lined up on either side of the block and it looked like demonstrators had nowhere to go. In the end, the police let them pass peacefully and the crowd headed back to the square.
Last month, the Louisville Democrat unveiled legislation she dubbed “Breonna’s Law” that would ban no-knock search warrants in Kentucky and impose new requirements on police practices.
Scott said on Friday she is more determined now to push it through when Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature reconvenes.
“Justice was not served for Breonna or her family or her community this week, so we have to make sure that we are turning our protests into policy,” she said.
Scott was with protesters seething that grand jury hearings into Taylor’s death led to no charges against police officers who killed the Black woman during a March drug raid at her apartment. A single officer was charged for firing into a neighbouring apartment, but no drugs were found in Taylor’s residence.
Scott said she and her daughter joined the protesters who gathered downtown on Thursday evening, following them in a car as they started marching.
They were headed to a church that offered refuge to protesters, she said, but police blocked the route they were going to take, so she said they parked and walked. As they walked up the ramp of a library near the church, police converged to make arrests before a curfew took effect, Scott said.
“LMPD swarmed us,” Scott said. “They started yelling, ‘Circle ’em, circle ’em.’ They would not let us leave to go back to our vehicle. And they would not let us literally cross the street to get to the church and sanctuary.” While making the arrests, one officer accidentally discharged his pepper ball gun and everyone dropped to the ground, she said.
Scott said she sat on a sidewalk for about an hour, before being taken to jail. She said she ended up in a holding cell for hours.
“We were traumatised,” she said. “We were shocked. It was unbelievable.” Scott was released on Friday morning. Her arraignment is set for October 6, the Courier Journal reported.
Police said Scott was in a group that was ordered to disperse but failed to do so. Members of the group damaged multiple buildings, including setting fire to a library, police said.
Scott told reporters on Friday that there is “no way that I would have been involved in trying to damage the library”. She said that as a lawmaker, she champions funding for libraries.
Kentucky’s top-ranking House Democrat, Rep. Joni Jenkins, said in a statement that she has known Scott for more than 20 years and that her colleague is “incapable of any kind of violent act”. “What I do know,” Jenkins said, “is that she is doing everything in her power to help Louisville heal during these difficult times”. (AGENCIES)
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