Gather as community in collective witness to the historic trial featuring the racism/white supremacy of Lexington’s criminal injustice system. On June 13 and July 11, 2020, nonviolent protesters against police brutality were arrested in Lexington, Ky. Local organizers were charged with Inciting a Riot and various other false charges. Please SHOW UP as racism/white supremacy stands trial in Lexington, KY - 140 years after the lynching of #JohnBush
Update on Trial for protest leaders:
Only 50 people will be allowed inside the courtroom.
Only one news media outlet will be allowed inside the courtroom.
There will be only 6 jurors.
Several local community groups are assisting with organizing a presence both inside the courtroom and outside the courthouse.
We are also encouraging community to gather at Third Street Stuff to watch a livestream to be provided by local media. (We are awaiting approval from Judge Tackett.)
In publicly available livestream footage, we see the Lexington Police Department escalate a peaceful, nonviolent protest into a direct violation of our constitutional right to protest.
Every other time this community has taken to the streets and asked for a specific amount of time, it had been granted. When we held the intersections downtown for 4 minutes for the 4 hours Mike Brown's body lay in the street, no one was arrested. On this night, June 13, 2020, protesters laying on the ground, communicating with LPD as the 8 minutes and 46 seconds ticked by, provides no basis for inciting a riot charge.
If the only damage LPD and Larry Roberts / Liz Bancroft can point to as property destruction is cut zipties totaling a few dollars, why were white, publicly intoxicated college students setting fire to the city not arrested and charged for rioting?
Larry Roberts has the text messages between organizers that show who did what - but he rather obscure the clear truth in favor of a constructed narrative of carefully woven lies to leave his legacy of modern day overseer intact.
Why did one night of civil disobedient nonviolent direct action turn into arrests for a riot? LPD, Linda, and the Fraternal Order of Police Bluegrass Lodge 4 were losing in their efforts to control the narrative in the media to escape answering demands in place for over a year.
LPD spokes person @Brenna Angel even sent an email to local media stating, "nothing will satisfy Sarah Williams," as if the 9 page document of our demands did not clearly articulate what would satisfy our demands for #LPDAccountability
The fact that LPD arrested me only feet from my car to leave for the night throws into question the occurrence of any real riot. Why were we allowed to continue protesting following arrests without anyone else being detained, yet LPD waits until I am out of public view to slam me to the ground and have an officer put their knee in my back?
Why has there been no mention of the "crime" that supposedly occurred on May 31, 2020 in which LPD refused to remove a white supremacist agitator from the crowd? Is it because several local clergy were present to bear direct witness to the complete lack of effort from LPD to remove this agitator?
If I committed a crime prior to leading several hundred people peacefully through the streets of Lexington, why not arrest me? The truth, there was no crime, but LPD needed that lie to justify sending my cell phone to Homeland Security and retrieving all of my personal data/ messages.
Ultimately, my arrest and subsequent criminalization was imperative for LPD and the FOP to try and regain control of the false narrative that LPD did not have Police misconduct issues like other police departments across the country.
The pomp and circumstance of the meeting at Southland Christian Church that Saturday morning failed epically. Despite having fellow black people draw their fists to punch us and attempt to dismiss us because we were not part of their elite upper middle class circle, I took to the mic during public comment and clearly communicated the loopholes in accountability protecting LPD's chaplain from any consequences for beating one of our children.
In almost 8 years of protesting in Lexington, doing die-ins, in the streets of downtown and inside Fayette Mall during the Christmas shopping season, we have never faced Police in riot gear and mass arrest. What changed on June 13, 2020? We had researched demands that the FOP and LPD were now having to provide direct answers to in front of the community at the city council meeting scheduled for the following Tuesday. Because of the online format of the meeting in the midst of the pandemic, community attendance and attention would be at record levels, requiring an extension of the meeting into the following evening.
It will be very interesting to witness how racism/ white supremacy attempts to twist the truth when trial begins, July 11, 2022, over 2 years since the initial arrests. George Floyd's killer has been convicted and sentenced, but I am still facing false charges for nonviolent protesters asking for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in honor of George Floyd's life while laying on a publicly funded sidewalk.
https://peoplesblueprint.org/2021/07/02/bluegrass-uprising-of-2020-2/