Breonna Taylor remembered in Kingston

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KINGSTON – Phil Erner lives in Midtown Kingston, and Saturday he was helping bring attention to police brutality on the one-year anniversary of the killing Breonna Taylor.

Taylor, an EMT, was killed during a raid on her house in Louisville, KY, and she was one of many who died last year as police accountability became a national issue through protests.

And Erner was helping string photos of minority women, who have been killed by police in the last few years.

“This is about women of color and victims of police brutality,” said Erner, who has been a frequent protester during the last year. “This is unacceptable. Police say they serve and protect. That’s not what’s happening. They are killing folks of color. They are killing women of color, and it’s got to stop.”

Lisa Royer is a criminal justice organizer for Rise Up Kingston, and she helped organize the protest at Academy Green Park, which called for the defunding of police.

She said the protests started picking up steam last year in Kingston last year when George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police on Memorial Day weekend.

“Right after the George Floyd march,” she said, “we actually got our police accountability passed by the community, which was good.”

Kingston protests were conducted every two weeks last year until the weather turned cold, when they dropped to once of a month. Now they’ll continue this year with more calls of police accountability.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” she said. “We’re hoping to amp it up to every two weeks when it gets warmer. Now it is once a month.”




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