Kentucky state Rep. Attica Scott has been fighting fiercely for justice for Breonna Taylor both in the Kentucky Legislature – as the one who proposed Breonna’s Law back in August, in an effort to ban no-knock warrants across the state – as well as in the streets with protesters.
It was on Thursday night, while calling for justice in the streets with others in Louisville, that Scott, a Democrat, was arrested alongside a group of protesters near First Unitarian Church and the Louisville Free Public Library.
According to WAVE, the protesters were accused of setting the library on fire, as well as causing extensive damage at other locations.
Scott, the only Black woman currently in the Kentucky state legislature, ended up being charged with rioting, failure to disperse, and unlawful assembly.
Scott’s daughter, Ashanti Scott, and activist Shameka Parrish-Wright were also arrested and facing the same charges, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
Parrish-Wight’s lawyer, Ted Shouse called the charges “outrageous” and said that neither his client nor Scott had anything to do with the damage to the library.
Others spoke out loudly against Scott’s and Parrish-Wright’s arrest.
“If you arrest the loudest voices fighting racial injustice in Louisville, we have to believe you want to silence the fight against racial injustice,” State Rep. Josie Raymond tweeted Thursday night, demanding that Scott and Parrish-Wright be released.
Leaders within the Louisville Free Public Library’s union also spoke out, noting that they stand in support of protesters calling for justice.
“Representative Scott has consistently been a vocal supporter of libraries and library workers and has been an ally specifically to our union through many battles,” President Ashley Nichole Sims and Vice President Val Pfister said in the statement. “We have seen no proof that the flare thrown into the library has done any major damage, nor that Representative Scott had anything to do with it, and find these accusations inconsistent with her character and the constant support we have received from her.”