A viral photo from Thursday night’s rally in Louisville appears to show a group of white women forming a barricade in front of black protesters to shield them from responding police officers.
As the Courier Journal reported, photographer Tim Druck was on scene and managed to capture the moment when the women locked arms to act as a blockade between police and the people protesting the death of a black woman named Breonna Taylor.
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Taylor was reportedly shot by police in her home on March 13 during a no-knock raid on her residence in Louisville.
According to CBC News , the 26-year-old emergency medical technician was asleep in bed with her boyfriend when three narcotics officers entered their home without knocking.
The wrongful death lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family states the officers then “proceeded to spray gunfire into the residence with a total disregard for the value of human life,” resulting in the young woman being fatally shot eight times.
On May 28, the 911 call Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, made on the night of the shooting was released.
“I don’t know what is happening,” he told a dispatcher during the two-minute call. “Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”
Just hours after the audio was released, protesters turned out in downtown Louisville to demand justice for Taylor, as the cops responsible for her death have been placed on leave while the shooting is investigated, but haven’t been disciplined.
Thursday night’s protests saw around 500 or 600 demonstrators march through the city’s downtown core for six hours.
Officers wearing body armor and face shields held batons and lined up to face off against the protesters, many of whom reportedly hid behind makeshift barriers to shield themselves from rubber bullets and tear gas canisters.
At least seven people were shot during the protest, though police spokesperson Sgt. Lamont Washington told AP , “No officers discharged their service weapons.”
At one point during the night, a group of white women formed a protective shield in front of the black protesters, a moment which photographer Druck was able to capture.
He told the Journal he showed up to the scene at around 9 PM as police presence was steadily growing, and he witnessed Chanelle Helm, a lead organizer for Black Lives Matter Louisville, addressing white protesters with a bullhorn.
“If you are going to be here, you should defend this space,” she told them, going on to instruct people to form a line facing police.
And that’s exactly what the group, largely made up of white women, did, locking arms and standing in unison against the officers.
“She was asking for white folks to use their privilege, and put their bodies between police and the other demonstrators,” Druck said. “And people responded. They didn’t need to be convinced. Everybody willingly and enthusiastically did it.”
He managed to snap a photo of the stand-off on his iPhone which was then uploaded to the Kentucky National Organization for Women’s Facebook page . As of writing, it’s been shared over 179,000 times and has more than 63,000 reactions.
Druck took a second photo with his Nikon which he then shared to his own Twitter page.
As a “Girl Dad” himself, he told the Journal he was proud to see so many women join forces together in that striking moment during the rally, where his wife and daughter were also in attendance.
“This is love,” he wrote on Twitter . “This is what you do with your privilege.”
h/t: Courier Journal , CBS News , Photo Credit: Tim Druck
