KENTUCKY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th September, 2020) Hundreds of members of white militias and anti-racism protesters, both sides brandishing weapons, have come face to face in central Louisville in the US state of Kentucky on Saturday, as well as traded verbal barbs and occasionally engaged in fights in the complete absence of the city police, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene.
The representatives of a predominantly white armed movement, who promised to confront lawlessness, which tarnishes anti-racism protests across the country, marched across the city towards the square in front of the city court, where they were met by their ideological opponents who also had rifles and pistols.
The sides did not use weapons and only engaged in disputes in a raised voice. Several times, it came to assault, but those involved in fights were quickly separated by their comrades.
BLM activists have been chanting slogans calling for an investigation into the killing of African-American woman Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police earlier this year.
No police officers have been dispatched to the square.
"I imagine they have more urgent matters," one of the organizers of the militias' march, who have been chanting slogans in support of law enforcement officers, told Sputnik.
Police arrived later when the members of white militias haunted by supporters of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement left the square. The officers pushed the crowd back from the road and left when the order was restored.
Louisville is expected to host another march later on Saturday, in particular, a rally by the armed black militia, NFAC, which positions itself as a more radical alternative to the BLM.
Taylor was killed in her Louisville home in March when police officers were executing a no-knock drug search warrant late at night. Her boyfriend fired the first shot in self-defense, fearing burglars, which prompted the four white police officers to unleash a hail of bullets on the house, hitting Taylor eight times.
The killing of the 26-year-old African American medical technician was initially overshadowed by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, which began to sweep the country around the same time. Activists, celebrities and demonstrators have since made it a point to keep her name in the news cycle and call for justice over her death.�The officers have yet to face any legal repercussions over the killing.
