DENVER | More than a dozen activists travelled more than 1,000 miles — from Louisville, Kentucky to Denver — to lend their effort to a national movement for racial justice at the boarded-up state Capitol Saturday night.
The group and the family of Elijah McClain chanted McClain’s name along side Breonna Taylor’s. Both were killed by police.
The meeting, thick with emotion and spirituality, was part of an exchange between local activists and those in Louisville, where residents are still demanding justice for Breonna Taylor.
The protest ended about 7:30 p.m. About 8 p.m. another group of protesters met and vandalized buildings near and around Denver’s Civic Center Park. That event turned violent and resulted in confrontation between Denver police and about 50 demonstrators.
Donning helmets and shields, protesters clashed with police near Downtown Denver city buildings, prompting officers to arrest at least nine people.
Fireworks were shot at officers, an American flag and a tree outside a courthouse were set ablaze, windows were shattered and fast-food restaurant was broken into during the unrest, news outlets reported.
People in the crowd said they were protesting for a variety of reasons — from efforts to defund the police department, to displeasure over the police response to a homeless camp last week, to the death of Elijah McClain — according to news outlets.
At least one officer was injured, police said. Smoke canisters and pepper balls were used to clear the crowd, news outlets reported. It’s unclear what charges the nine arrested might face.
The earlier demonstration was peaceful and passionate, targeting past police incidents protesters say reveal systemic racism among capricious and brutal police ranks and departments.
Taylor, a Black woman, was shot and killed in her home by plainclothes Louisville Metro Police Department officers in March as part of a botched drug raid. None of the officers involved have been charged with a crime.
“We keep having this thing happen over and over,” Rev. Stachelle Bussey, a Louisville resident, told the Sentinel. “So wherever the fight is, that’s where I’m coming to.”
The Louisville activists gathered with locals and lawmakers including protest leader Candice Bailey, Sheneen McClain — Elijah’s mother — Denver state Reps. Leslie Herod and James Coleman and Denver Public Schools board member Tay Anderson.
“Justice for Elijah McClain, Justice for Breonna Taylor,” chanted lawyer Mari Newman, who represents the McClain family. “Justice for all of those who have been murdered at the hands of law enforcement.”
Activists rode from Louisville to Denver and plan on visiting other cities to link movements against racism and police violence.
Last month, Bailey and other Aurora activists traveled to Louisville to link up with protesters there.
Bussey said it’s a strategy born out of the 1960s-era civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Angela Davis would all hop from city to city to build movements’ strength, she said.
In this case, Louisville and Aurora activists say Taylor’s death bears a resemblance to Elijah McClain’s and an exhaustive list of other Black victims of police officers across the country. McClain was stopped last August by three Aurora police officers, who restrained the 23-year-old massage therapist with the now-banned carotid hold. He died days later. Elijah McClain’s death later spurred a slew of investigations, national attention and the possibility of serious reforms within the Aurora Police Department.
Robert Martin, another member of the Louisville caravan, said the racial justice movement is all about ensuring Black people can live to be 70 years old, not dying prematurely and violently.
Sheneen McClain did not speak at the Saturday gathering as part of her general “media blackout” until APD officers who stopped Elijah are convicted of murder charges.
Her lawyer, Newman, told the crowd Elijah “is not just important as a symbol, but as a human being, as a son of this grieving mother and an entire grieving family.”
“It is our moral obligation to stand by them, whatever they need, give them the space they need, and give them the support they need,” she said of the families.
Bussey said, in visiting Denver, she’d forged important connections with activists here.
“But I also feel tensions,” she said. “I see boards on the buildings. I see homeless people. Right? I see graffiti, I see trash in the streets. I see cops surrounding the area. But I understand it’s love for the people but tensions with power. I see that everywhere.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this story.