Armed pro-police groups confronted Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Louisville, Kentucky, amid the city’s 146th annual Kentucky Derby.
As BLM protesters vowed, they would boycott Derby Day by protesting Breonna Taylor’s death near the Churchill Downs Racetrack due to investigators’ slow progress with her case.
Among the groups determined to take to the streets to bring attention to Taylor’s unwarranted death were armed militia members of Until Freedom and NFAC.
Opposing the BLM groups, hundreds of pro-police supporters gathered in the area ahead of the BLM march armed with semi-automatic weapons and dressed in combat gears.
Among the counter-protesters was a group of some two hundred people who call themselves ‘The Angry Vikings’.
As the self-proclaimed patriots and vigilantes expressed in an interview with WLKY, they were ready for a showdown with Black Lives Matter protesters because they have enough of destruction caused during protests.
According to The Angry Vikings, who were seen wielding American flags and chanting ‘USA! USA!’, they took to the streets ahead of the BLM assembly to defend the city.
While the police eventually managed to clear the park and pull protesters and counter-protesters apart, demonstrations and confrontations continued around the city.
As Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron reassured the public on Saturday, the investigation of Breonna Taylor’s death is moving forward.
“Today, while we honor a KY tradition with the running of the Derby, we remain cognizant of the community’s desire for answers in the investigation into the death of Ms. Breonna Taylor. We continue to move forward with our investigation, reviewing each fact to reach the truth,” he said.
As the city’s police also confirmed, they worked with groups of protesters in order to ensure that their assemblies would be safe for everyone involved.
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