Reflection on Breonna Taylor Protest

23 September 2020

I attended a protest in downtown Columbus in front of the Ohio Statehouse in response to the ruling of Breonna Taylor’s case. I remember I was sitting in The Union doing schoolwork when the notification came up on my phone that no officers were charged directly in Breonna Taylor’s death. I texted my mom: “You think things can’t get any worse and then another thing hits the news –  I can’t.”

I was supposed to have two Zoom calls that evening, but both of the organizations either canceled their meeting or allowed us to miss the meeting to attend the protest. I took the bus downtown with a group from IA in my dorm hallway and then we met up with more people from IA once we arrived. At first, we were standing on the sidewalk saying different chants: “Breonna Taylor,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Defund the Police,” and so on. Then we moved to walk in the middle of the streets in downtown Columbus. This night was so powerful because people had signs, were holding BLM flags, and shouting the chants. We then went directly in front of the Courthouse where there were more chants, speeches, and a woman sang. Honestly, I began to cry a little when the woman was singing. We were out protesting for equality and justice and the backdrop was the Courthouse with twenty or so police officers (no masks) and dogs on the steps – an odd response to our requests for equality and justice. 

For safety, we left once it started to get dark. This event really touched me. The racial injustice in our system is horrendous and we need to take action to address it in the United States and around the world.

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