Discussing Wednesday’s violent protests in Louisville, Democrat Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said Thursday that “99.99% of people could be doing it right” – then turned his comments to the threat of “white supremacy groups or militias also marching into town.”
On Wednesday, two police officers were shot and a total of 143 people were arrested as mobs took to the streets to protest a grand jury’s decision in the case of the police-related shooting death of Breonna Taylor, Kentucky’s Courier-Journal reports:
Louisville police arrested 127 people during Wednesday protests following the announcement that just one of three Louisville Metro Police officers who fired shots in Breonna Taylor’s apartment will be criminally charged, and one suspect was arrested after LMPD officials said two officers were shot that night.
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An additional 16 arrests were made downtown during the day, as department spokesman Lamont Washington said protesters moved a barricade at Sixth and Market streets to allow vehicles on to a closed downtown road before damaging multiple city vehicles.
But, in an interview Thursday with The Courier-Journal, Kentucky Gov. Beshear not only suggested the protesters were 99% peaceful, he also warned of the threat of white supremacist groups and militias “marching into town” during the protests:
“What we saw last night is that 99.99% of people could be doing it right, but one person who wants to do the wrong thing can mar what is otherwise a nonviolent night where people are expressing how they feel,” Beshear said of the protests in Louisville Wednesday.
“When we see white supremacy groups or militias also marching into town, it just shows that we need to make sure that we have the appropriate levels of peace officers in place to ensure that we can protect everyone and ensure that people are able to express themselves while being able to do it in a safe way,” he continued.
