Leitchfield was the latest small town in Kentucky to be the site of a Black Lives Matter-associated demonstration, as several dozen protesters crowded around the old courthouse on the Town Square Wednesday night.
The largely peaceful, wholly non-violent protest, with intermittent “discourse” between the protesters and a small group of counter-protesters, consisted of demonstrators waving signs, chanting and marching around the old courthouse and listening to three local speakers.
At its peak, between 70 and 80 Black Lives Matter-associated protesters were in attendance, located mostly on the west side of the old courthouse, with a group of about 15 counter-protesters on the sidewalk and parking lot across Main Street from the demonstrators.
At various times throughout the protest, which began in earnest at approximately 6:15 and ended at about 9:00, the Black Lives Matter supporters and the group of counter-protesters verbally sparred, shouting across Main Street at one another, sometimes via a bullhorn.
Leitchfield Police Chief David Riley and Grayson County Sheriff Norman Chaffins ensured no physical contact was made between the two groups, as other officers and deputies monitored the area, as well (it did, though, appear one of the Black Lives Matter speakers became engaged in a brief face-to-face, heated conversation with a possible counter-protester on the edge of the courthouse’s west lawn).
The protesters, joining other demonstrators around Kentucky and the nation, shouted several slogans associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, including “No justice no peace,” and “I can’t breathe,” as well as chanted slain Louisville EMT Breonna Taylor’s name.
One of the most contentious moments of the night began late in the demonstration when a counter-protester and Black Lives Matter supporter began an insult-, expletive-laden exchange that lasted about 10 minutes, before both participants lost steam. About 10 minutes later, the square was nearly empty.
The recent cellphone recorded killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the hands of a white police officer, Taylor being shot eight times during the service of a controversial no-knock warrant by Louisville police, and the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery at the hands of at least two white men in Glynn County, Georgia, have ignited protests against police brutality around the nation, which at times have been violent and deadly.
But in Leitchfield Wednesday night, while the two groups of demonstrators verbally clashed multiple times, no violence was perpetrated and no arrests were made.
A K105 Digital Production video of the event can be found by clicking here.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact ken at ken@k105.com
