Kentucky activists launch hunger strike to get justice for Breonna Taylor

Since 26-year-old Black medical worker Breonna Taylor was killed by Louisville police officers, protests demanding justice have been ongoing. Now, four people in Kentucky have staged an ambitious demonstration: a hunger strike to demand all the officers involved in her death are fired and stripped of their pensions.

Video Transcript

ARI MAYBE: As far as how long we're willing to go, what is a person's life worth? Is my life worth more than Breonna's?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Here in Louisville, Kentucky, we do have a systemic history of issues with the corrections department. Anybody that's marginalized, if you can lift them up, that's your responsibility as a member of society.

I'm also transgender. I'm a marginalized person, and I feel that it is my duty to fight. Our concerns have been ignored. Our voices have been ignored. And so we have to stand up and make a difference, and that requires extreme measures.

We needed something that we could control the narrative because the media here locally and nationally, they bury a lot of what's going on. We have civil-rights and social-justice action going on that is not being reported.

In this form of protest, we control the beginning and the end. Can't be arrested, and so we hope that with this little bit of power that we have that we can re-energize the movement here locally and put the power back in the hands of the people it belongs to.

VINCENT GONZALES: We do vitals and check-ins twice a day. The team will add noncaloric supplements to our waters, and we just, you know, monitor any symptoms. They've been awesome in really making sure that this is as safe as possible.

ARI MAYBE: Compared to what Breonna went through, me being hungry for a few days or a week or two weeks or 60 days, I don't care. That is of no concern to me.

VINCENT GONZALES: The community very much stands behind us. Of course, there's the trolls out there, but the love that we've been shown is just, I mean, 20-fold any sort of negative perception. So, I mean, that's the fuel that keeps us going.

Breonna Taylor was one of us. She had thoughts, hopes, dreams, and desires, and the state took that away from her and all of the other Breonna Taylors of this world.

Coronavirus has turned so much of this upside down. And while there have been constant tragedies with this, what a beautiful time for us to envision and dream and hope to find a brave new world that we seek to live in.