Four protesters in Kentucky are on a hunger strike, demanding that two police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor are fired and stripped of their pensions.
According to the group’s Facebook page, called Hunger Strikers for Breonna, the hunger strike started Monday at 12 p.m. ET.
READ MORE: Fired police officer shot ‘blindly’ in Breonna Taylor’s home in ‘reckless conduct,’ chief says
“We will restrict all caloric intake until the officers who murdered Breonna Taylor are fired and stripped of their pensions,” the group posted on its Facebook page. “Please support us in our sincere desire for justice by sharing our mission far and wide.”
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black ER technician, was shot eight times by officers who burst into her Louisville, Ky., home using a no-knock warrant during a March 13 narcotics investigation. No drugs were found at her home.
Taylor’s boyfriend says the couple was asleep when police entered the apartment.
The police officers involved in the shooting were Brett Hankison, Myles Cosgrove and Jonathan Mattingly. Hankison has since been fired, while Cosgrove and Mattingly remain on the force.
Taylor’s case has since become part of a worldwide movement denouncing police violence and systemic racism. Protesters across the U.S. have been carrying signs her with name and picture alongside those of George Floyd, a Black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25.
The officers involved in Floyd’s death have since been fired and charged.
The four protesters in Kentucky are demanding that Mattingly and Cosgrove are stripped of their badges.
According to Courier Journal, the four won’t eat anything but vitamin supplements and can only drink water, green tea and black coffee.
The protesters are also livestreaming the hunger strike on their Facebook page.
“In this form, we can control it,” Ari Maybe told the Courier Journal. “It’s not like a sit-in, where we can be arrested. It’s not like a protest, where there’s a beginning and an end. We control the beginning, the end and the entire narrative.”
Medical staff and mental health practitioners will be checking in with the protesters.
Comments