“High noon we opened the wooden church doors, then we opened fire and gave em’ what they came for .”— B. Silas
We move forward in what some are calling a Constitutional crisis, where President Trump is saying he will refuse to accept the election results if he loses on November 3rd. In fact, we are in our own Constitutional crisis with the First Amendment. As the President states over and over, “fake media”, the thin blue line treats members of the press as such. The free and fair press must cover events such as the protests in Louisville. They are there to document both sides of the protest. Either it be rioters or law enforcement. The documentation of the actions and reactions during these events are protected and were hand wrote into the Constitution. Empirically, the Constitution protects the protestors and the press from the police. It protects us from the police. That is something that needs to be understood. The police are servants to society, not the other away around. Corruption aside, the LMPD has overstepped their boundaries many times. If they didn’t think that they were untouchable before decision not to charge any of the officers in the death of Breonna Taylor, it is apparent that they are now.
There have been multiple incidents of members of the press being arrested during the protests in the recent months. Just this week on Wednesday night a couple of reporters from the Daily Caller were detained and arrested for breaking curfew even after they proved to LMPD that they were fulfilling their duties as members of the press. If the press is not allowed on the streets after curfew to document, then who is. For example, on that night at the apartment of Breonna Taylor, the police were not wearing body cameras. The accounts of that night are only from those that were being accused of wrong doing. Documentation and body cameras keep both sides honest and helps provide a more accurate depiction of events.
Another scene displaying bad judgment on part of the LMPD occurred last night. The First Unitarian Church of Louisville opened the doors yesterday evening to protestors, by doing so offering a safe haven. A sanctuary. Prior to the curfew, the church setup a snack tables with fruit and water for the protestors. The curfew started at 9pm as police surrounded the church house. By blocking off the exits nobody was allowed to leave. If they did, they would be arrested for breaking the curfew. True entrapment. Kentucky State Representative Attica Scott, a Democrat from the Louisville area was one of several people detained during the incident. Eventually, the police allowed those within the walls of the old 19th century Gothic-style church to disburse without being arrested.
The Facebook page for the church posted that “After the county-wide curfew tonight, Injustice Park protestors were welcomed to the First U courtyard and given sanctuary to continue their rally until they were ready to leave.”
Former Senatorial Democrat candidate, Charles Booker wrote on his Facebook during the standoff, “Imagine that police officers are surrounding a church, waiting for anyone to step off of the property so they can arrest them for breaking curfew. Now imagine the ministers working to get everyone inside the sanctuary to keep them safe.”
This fight is not going anywhere. The tension in our country is approaching unforeseen levels heading in a the election just over a month away. There are so many layers to the angst felt in the country. Louisville Kentucky is just one of the flash points where more than embers burn in the fight for justice and the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution.
