Four protesters in Louisville, the same Kentucky city Breonna Taylor was killed in, started a hunger strike Monday; they say they won’t be stopping until justice for Taylor is achieved, The Louisville Courier-Journal initially reported. Amira Bryant, Ari Maybe, Vincent Gonzalez, and Tabin Ibershoff announced their plan to only eat vitamin supplements and drink water, green tea, and black coffee. The protesters are livestreaming their strike on the Facebook page Hunger Strikers for Breonna.
Bryant told The Courier-Journal the hunger strike is another branch of protest efforts stemming from the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Since the late-May start to protests for Floyd, they have spread throughout the country, sometimes attracting violent responses from police. Maybe said that’s one of the reasons she and the other activists decided on a hunger strike.
"In this form, we can control it," she told The Courier-Journal. "It's not like a sit-in, where we can be arrested. It's not like a protest, where there's a beginning and an end. We control the beginning, the end and the entire narrative."
Although Louisville police officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove fired into 26-year-old Taylor's home while she was sleeping, killing her and allegedly leaving her unassisted to die on March 13, only Hankison was fired. None of the officers have been arrested. "We all restrict all calorie intake until the officers who murdered Breonna Taylor are fired and stripped of their pensions,” the strikers said in the caption of Wednesday’s livestream. They also invited others to join them in “whatever capacity you can,” whether it be through fasting or abstaining from an action. “Our demands are simple and we demand justice,” the protesters said on Facebook Tuesday. “Fire Mattingly and Cosgrove. Remove the pensions of Hankinson, Mattingly, and Cosgrove. No Justice, No Feast!”
Attorneys for Taylor's family have linked the drug raid that led to Taylor's death to a gentrification plan in western Louisville where the emergency medical technician lived. "People needed to be removed and homes needed to be vacated so that a high dollar, legacy-creating real estate development could move forward," attorneys said in a complaint. "An entire police squad was created and was primarily devoted towards targeting homes and people on Elliott Avenue."
Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, told investigators when officers knocked in his door, he immediately called Taylor's mother because he was unsure of who had entered his home, according to The Courier-Journal. "(Police are) yelling like, 'Come out, come out,' and I'm on the phone with her (mom). I'm still yelling help because she's over here coughing and, like, I'm just freaking out," Walker said. No drugs were found in the home.
RELATED: Despite cries for help, Breonna Taylor's boyfriend says police offered no aid after shooting
RELATED: Louisville releases 911 call in Breonna Taylor shooting; backs up her boyfriend’s claim against cops
RELATED: New complaint ties Breonna Taylor warrant to Louisville gentrification plan