Protesters march on the Las Vegas Strip Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, against the grand-jury decision not to charge officers for killing Breonna Taylor.
Friday, Sept. 25, 2020 | 12:25 a.m.
Ignoring a few instigators and embracing many more supporters, demonstrators marched up and down the Las Vegas Strip Thursday night to honor Breonna Taylor and demand racial justice.
The demonstration came a day after a grand jury declined to indict Louisville, Kentucky, police officers in the shooting death of Taylor earlier this year during a no-knock warrant.
The decision inspired a similar protest in downtown Las Vegas Wednesday night, which led to six arrests.
Taylor’s killing and the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer have sparked frequent protests throughout the U.S., many that have led to violence and riots in other cities.
Led by local activist Stretch Sanders, 100 to 200 protesters gathered along the north Strip and marched south past the Mirage, where they turned around and walked back. Metro Police, which mostly kept their distance, reported no incidents.
“Trust me, you’re making a difference,” Sanders declared at one point, noting that achieving racial justice and stopping police brutality would take “boots on the ground” movements, which would require more than votes in ballot boxes.
Sanders and other leaders made sure participants marched in organized lines and followed traffic rules.
Sanders stated that the issue, which protesters describe as a system built on racism, goes back several generations and predates President Donald Trump’s administration, a point another speaker touched on when she said it’s not a Republican or a Democratic Party problem.
Instead, it’s a flawed criminal justice system, she added.
The march, which stretched almost 5 miles and lasted several hours, featured sign-toting protesters chanting: “No justice. No peace. No racist police,” they shouted.
“Arrest, convict, send those killer cops to jail, the whole damn system is racist as hell,” they chanted at another point.
Protesters paid homage to Taylor, Floyd and other Black Americans who’ve died at the hands of police. They also spotlighted locals who’ve been killed, including Jorge Gomez, an armed Latino protester killed by Metro officers during a June 1 protest in downtown Las Vegas.
The same night — almost simultaneously — a gunman shot and paralyzed Metro Officer Shay Mikalonis, who was breaking up a rowdy protest 3 miles north of the Gomez shooting.
While protests here turned chaotic shortly after Floyd’s death, prompting confrontations between demonstrators and police who have deployed tear gas, subsequent demonstrations have been mostly without incident.
Protesters on Thursday brushed off taunts from a passing motorcyclist who screamed obscene and homophobic epithets, a motorist who shouted “Trump 2020,” and a man who followed them for a while, shouting “shut up!” with a small megaphone.
Motorists and passersby, some of whom joined the march, raised their fists in support.
Aside from a conversation between Sanders and a pair of Metro officers before the march began, police stayed away. When marchers passed by officers, who wore riot gear as they blocked the road toward Trump Tower, protest leaders told them to keep walking.
The property has been guarded by police during every protest on the Strip.
Sanders warned that future protests might require further disruption, including escalated acts of civil disobedience. But none of that happened Thursday night: “Understand what you’re doing. It’s powerful. It’s bigger than you, it’s bigger than all of us. It's about these victims who never had a chance to do what we’re doing.”
The system must be fixed, Sanders said: “I don’t know about you all, but I’m not trying to protest 10 years from now.”
