Relatives of Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake went to Ohio to protest. Then the Cops Came After Them.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2022/07/breonna-taylor-jacob-blake-ohio-police-arrest/

It has not ended. Last month, the police in Akron, Ohio, fatally shot Jayland Walker dozens of times after a traffic stop. A family mourned. Protests followed.

For Bianca Austin and Jacob Blake Sr., the shooting brought back bad memories. Austin’s niece was Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old woman who was fatally shot during a botched police raid on her home in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2020. Blake’s son Jacob Blake Jr. famously survived a police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, months later.

Since then, Austin and Blake Sr. have become close friends and colleagues, forming an organization called Families United that seeks to support people who have lost loved ones to police violence. They’ve traveled all over the country, protesting with and consoling relatives and friends of Daunte Wright, Cameron Lamb, and others.

After Walker’s death, they traveled to Akron, once again trying to help. But when they arrived, things did not go as planned. During a peaceful protest on July 6, the police attacked their friend and fellow activist Michael Harris, punching him repeatedly in the face. When Jacob Blake Sr. tried to intervene, the police turned on him, landing him in a hospital. Police also arrested Austin and her Families United colleague Cortez Rice, charging them with rioting, engaging in disorderly conduct, and failing to disperse. (They deny the allegations.)

Last week, after Blake Sr. and Austin were discharged from the hospital and jail, Walker’s family invited them to attend the funeral. The next day, the duo video-called me from their car in Akron, along with Harris and Cortez, to share what they experienced at the protests.

“I was terrified and in shock at what was taking place,” Austin told me.

*snip*

[chowder66]

1. This has GOT TO STOP! It's so damned disturbing that so many cops have zero

ability to control their hyped-up emotions.

[2naSalit]

7. They want Jim Crow back so bad...

They're gonna bring it back no matter what anyone else says or does.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. These police officers need to be prosecuted and fired

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Unreformable. FTP.

[wnylib]

4. Hope somebody got video for the lawsuits.

[housecat]

5. This is a preview of what the government would become if trump steals another election

[2naSalit]

8. Yup.

[irisblue]

6. From one of the Twitter people there

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=9EFLrs1YE7ID10eeClAyFA

Akron is not a rich town. The settlements hurt the civilian tax payers, not the individual cops, not their pension funds.

[2naSalit]

9. This is just like when I was a kid...

Before 1964.

[KS Toronado]

10. Something seriously wrong in this country

when law enforcement denies people their 1st amendment rights.