NOT FUCKING AROUND COALITION FACES OFF WITH THE THREE PERCENTERS

Gunshots Fired as Rival Militias Face Off in Louisville

 

By Emily Shugerman

 

Daily Beast

July 25, 2020

 

Shots rang out in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday as hundreds of members of dueling militia groups faced off during a planned protest against police brutality.

The march was initially planned by the Not Fucking Around Coalition—an all-Black armed militia founded by Atlanta-based rapper and DJ John “Jay” Johnson—to protest the death of 26-year-old Black woman Breonna Taylor at the hands of Louisville cops.

The “Three Percenter” far-right militia group also called on members to be present to act as an ad-hoc security force during the rally, according to social media posts first reported by a local radio station.

Johnson said in a YouTube video Sunday that the march was a response to the death of Taylor, who was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department officers serving a no-knock warrant on her apartment in March. Her death and those of many other Black Americans sparked widespread protests this summer over racism and police violence.

Earlier this month, Johnson assembled about 1,000 militia members to march through Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park in protest of a confederate monument there. For Saturday’s rally, he asked members to arrive armed and dressed in black.

About 500 NFAC members—some from as far away as Oregon—answered the call, according to reporters on the ground, gathering in Baxter Park Saturday morning before the planned march to Jefferson Square Park. Dozens of Three Percenters also showed up in camouflage and carrying guns. Black Lives Matter protesters, unaffiliated with either group, also showed up to protest.

By 11:30 a.m., before NFAC had even started their march, police in riot gear had erected a barricade to separate the Three Percenters from Black Lives Matter protesters, which did not stop the opposing sides from chanting and yelling at each other. One Black Lives Matter protesters who tried to walk through the police barricade was arrested, according to videos posted on Twitter by Courier-Journal reporter Hayes Gardner.

Shots rang out in Baxter Park shortly before 1 p.m., and medics arrived on the scene minutes later. Local reporters said two people were taken onto stretchers, and said the local safety department confirmed reports of multiple victims. It was not immediately clear who fired the shots. The NFAC ordered members to take a knee as the situation developed.

Tensions in Louisville were already high after a 27-year-old photographer was shot and killed last month during another protest against Taylor’s death. (Officials say another demonstrator unintentionally shot the photographer, Tyler Gerth, during a disturbance at the protest. The man has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and first degree wanton endangerment.) Experts said the dueling militias would likely exacerbate the situation.

“I am deathly afraid of a street war,” extremism expert J.J. MacNab previously told WFPL News. “We’ve got too many opposing factions who are all too heavily armed.”

Taylor, an EMT who worked for two local hospitals, and her boyfriend were asleep in their apartment on March 13 when three officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant looking for a suspected drug dealer who lived in a different part of town. Her boyfriend fired a warning shot as he thought they were being burglarized. It prompted officers to return fire at least a dozen times.

Authorities obtained the warrant to raid Taylor’s home because they claimed she used to date the suspected drug dealer and was receiving mail on his behalf. However, her family have argued in a lawsuit that there was no evidence to show Taylor or her boyfriend had any link to drug dealing or any criminal history of drugs of violence.

One officer has been fired for his role in obtaining the warrant and the Louisville Metro Police Department said it would no longer use “no-knock” warrants. However, protesters have demanded all three officers be charged.