Protestors marched through Downtown San Jose Wednesday night chanting, “No justice, no peace,” expressing their anger over the recent development in the investigation of Breonna Taylor’s death.
Taylor died on March 13 in Louisville, Kentucky when she was shot at least five times in her apartment by police officers executing a “no-knock” search warrant, according to a Sept. 9 New York Times article. She was a 26-year-old emergency medical technician at the time.
The march began at City Hall around 9 p.m. after Nino, a Black Liberation and Collective Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K.) Outreach San Jose public relations member, addressed the crowd.
Nino is also a chairman of the board for B.L.A.C.K. Outreach San Jose, a Black activist community collective, and is a part of HERO Tent, a nonprofit that aims to support protesters across the Bay Area with medical supplies. He and other members of the organization have requested not to use their last names out of concern for their safety.
“The ruling today in Breonna Taylor’s case is bullshit, right?” he said. The crowd shouted their agreement.
The Kentucky attorney general announced early Wednesday that a grand jury indicted one officer involved in the death of Taylor on three counts of “wanton endangerment,” for endangering the lives of Taylor’s neighbors during the raid.
Wanton endangerment is classified as a Class D felony wherein a person acts with, “extreme indifference to the value of human life,” and puts others in a deadly situation, according to Kentucky state law. A single charge carries a sentence of three to five years. There were no other charges related to Taylor’s death. Of the three officers directly involved in her death, former detective Brett Hankison has been fired.
“We out here for Breonna, Breonna Taylor’s family, Louisville, all the other cities who are going up, everyone else who passed away from police brutality,” Nino said.
The protestors marched east on Santa Clara Street and north on First and West St. James Streets to the Thomas Fallon Statue of the aforementioned on horseback,, located on West Julian and St. James Streets.
Some protestors graffitied the statue with “FTP”, “FDT”, “Justice for Breonna Taylor” and “Fuck White Supremacy,” then tied U.S. and Donald Trump flags to the statue, doused it in lighter fluid and set it ablaze.
As police helicopters circled above, chants of “Fuck the police,” continued as protestors began to march back to San Jose City Hall.
The organizers planned to continue their demonstration all night but according to a live blog from San Jose Inside, dwindling numbers of protesters prompted them to decamp earlier than initially planned.
“We’re gonna occupy City Hall,” said Jason, a B.L.A.C.K. Outreach organizer.
The crowd originally gathered on the steps of San Jose City Hall a few hours earlier at 5 p.m. to address the need for police reform in the wake of the Breonna Taylor case.
Approximately 40 people of all ages were actively demonstrating on the sidewalk outside City Hall. With signs emblazoned with “Black Lives Matter,” and “People over property,” the protesters chanted, “Say her name, Breonna Taylor,” while cars passing by honked in support.
B.L.A.C.K. Outreach member Paris, said he was surprised the officers involved in the Taylor case didn’t lose everything, “just like her family lost everything.”
“I’m outraged. I’m pissed off. I’m hurt, I’m sad,” he said. “But we gotta think about her family. Imagine what her family is going through.”
In response to the fiscal settlement the city of Louisville is expected to pay Taylor’s family, Paris said, “$12 million for a life? A life is priceless.”
The crowd grew to approximately 100 people by 7 p.m., when organizers erected a homemade 10-foot-tall guillotine among the flagpoles outside City Hall.
Kiana Simmons, HERO Tent founder and president, said the constructed guillotine was a visual metaphor for defunding the police and taking down those in power.
B.L.A.C.K. Outreach President Lou Dimes gathered the crowd together to explain the group’s rationale for building the art installation.
“When people ask why a guillotine, it’s a symbol of an uprising . . . this is here as a symbol of us sick of people oppressing us,” Dimes said.
He said he has sent many requests to speak to San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo about police reform, but those have been ignored and the mayor’s office continues to attempt to address him indirectly through colleagues.
Dimes encouraged protesters to camp out all night and continue the demonstration if they wanted to make a statement to City Hall.
Around 8 p.m., protestors collaborated on a pavement mural in the dim illumination of City Hall lights. It read “Justice 4 Breonna” in purple paint.
Jason, B.L.A.C.K Outreach organizer, called for police reform within the San Jose Police Department to meet the demands of the people. In addition to immediately putting officers involved in civilian-shooting incidents on leave, he said there should be more transparency and civilian oversight in the investigations that follow.
“We should be able to decide if these are still gonna be the [the ones] policing our communities and coming to our homes,” Jason said.
