Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton says she’ll organize a group to look into any changes to further positive policing and community interaction. This decision comes following three days of downtown protesting.
Hundreds of people gathered to voice concerns about the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in police related enforcements in Minneapolis and Louisville.
Mayor Gorton said the group, including citizens, court representatives, faith leaders, and city council members, will be charged with listening first and foremost to community concerns. “People don’t feel like they’re heard and if you don’t feel like you’re heard, then you don’t necessarily feel respected,” said Gorton.
Gorton noted yet to be decided is how to conduct the listening sessions, whether that be through virtual meetings or gathering in smaller groups. Police Chief Lawrence Weathers said the highly publicized incidents in Kentucky and Minnesota, quote “struck everybody to the core, even my officers.”
The chief said officers under his direction wanted to demonstrate that they felt strongly about what happened in the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. During an afternoon news conference Monday at city hall, he said that opportunity came during Sunday night’s protest. Weathers said some protesters asked officers to march with them. The chief said officers couldn’t break ranks, but could still communicate a message. “Then they said, well kneel with us, kneel with us. So they knelt down. And I looked at Lieutenant Moore and she looked at me. She said ‘Are we going to kneel?’ and I said ‘Are we?’ and she said, ‘I don’t know, you’re the chief.’ So I knelt and then she knelt,” said Weathers.
Weathers said he proceeded to tell the other officers in line, kneeling was ok, but it was also a choice. Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton praised police for their professionalism during protests.
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