‘Enough is enough.’ Black faith leaders call on officials to change Lexington policies.

“We come this day to say, ‘No more. Enough is enough. We demand justice.’”

That was Thursday’s message from Rev. David Peoples, pastor of the Jabez Missionary Baptist Church and vice president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Peoples was among a group of faith leaders who marched Thursday to deliver racial justice demands to Lexington government officials.

The group delivered a statement signed by more than 40 religious leaders from Lexington and surrounding areas. They marched from Main Street Baptist Church to deliver the statement to Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton, Police Chief Lawrence Weathers and Fayette County Sheriff Kathy Witt. The statement was also going to be sent to Fayette County Public Schools and the University of Kentucky, Peoples said.

In the statement, the leaders asked for specific actions: the elimination of no-knock warrants in Lexington and the surrounding areas, a citizen review board for the police and minimum minority business inclusion goals.

“Over the years, we have individually and collectively spoken and taken action towards incremental progress,” said Rev. Joseph Owens, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Lexington while reading from the group’s statement. “However, an ongoing blatant disregard for the sanctity of black lives has compelled this united and urgent response.”

The statement and subsequent march were spurred by the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, George Floyd in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, but Peoples said those incidents were just part of “years, decades and centuries of injustice, of racial profiling, of police brutality, lynchings, voter suppression, economic and health disparities.”

“But we come this day to say no more,” Peoples said.

Gorton thanked the leaders for providing her with their statement.

“We are all in this together,” she said when it was delivered.

End no-knock warrants, start citizen review board

The group’s request to outlaw no-knock search warrants noted that they are rarely used by Lexington police. Police said last week that they have not served a no-knock search warrant in over a year.

Police also said those warrants are reviewed thoroughly by supervising officers before being taken to a judge for approval. Only trained officers can carry out those warrants. Those officers are clearly marked as police and they announce their presence after entering, police said.

“Certainly, there may be investigative advantages to executing no-knock entries,” Owens said while reading from the statement. “But as we have seen in Louisville, the potential foreseeable costs are far greater than to justify their continued use.”

Weathers and Gorton have both said they are reviewing Lexington’s no-knock warrant policies, but they have not vowed to change or suspend the use of them.

Officers in Louisville were serving a no-knock warrant when they shot and killed Breonna Taylor in March.

In their request for an independent citizen review board, the group said it would help resolve mistrust between black citizens and police.

Owens pointed to a February 2019 incident involving a Lexington police chaplain who allegedly punched a 16-year-old boy after restraining him at Fayette Mall. The boy’s mother has since filed a lawsuit.

“This speaks to the obvious need for an independent citizen review board to assess the possibility of police misconduct,” Owens said.

Gorton said earlier this week that the city is open to looking at a citizens review board for police disciplinary matters, but she said there are steps that have to be taken to make it happen.

State law doesn’t currently allow for a citizens review board for police disciplinary matters, and the Fraternal Order of Police Bluegrass Lodge 4 would have to accept the use of the board.

Weathers said he didn’t know what was in the statement when it was delivered, but he said the department would “look at it seriously.”

“At the highest level of the police department, we’re listening,” Weathers said. “...It’s hard when you’re in this position, and people see police doing the things that they’re doing all across the country, it’s hard to convince some people that you’re not that way.”

The group said they believe that without change, demonstrations against police brutality could turn violent.

“Unless transformational progress begins immediately, with regard to local law enforcement and local economic disparities, it is only a matter of time before local protests result in violence as they did with the protests of Antonio Sullivan’s death in 1994,” Owens said.

Sullivan was shot and killed by a white police officer in an apartment in Bluegrass Aspendale in Lexington. The officer, Phil Vogel, said his gun discharged accidentally, hitting Sullivan in the head. The shooting sparked simmering anger in the black community and civil unrest by protesters in downtown Lexington.

The leaders’ statement also asked for Lexington and its surrounding areas to implement “local minority business inclusion goals of 15 percent minimum of total vendors and contractor spending.”

Black Lexingtonians have “limited access to economic empowerment and inclusion in this city that has 25 percent racial minority population,” Owens said while reading from the statement. “Tens of billions of dollars in business transactions and development projects have occurred in Lexington over the last 20 years.

“But local black participation in this economic growth has been almost nonexistent because the requisite desire to fix this injustice has been lacking.”

City leaders recently created a program they hope will help minority-owned businesses.

Earlier this week, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council created a $2.5 million grant program for small businesses hit hard by coronavirus-related business closures. Half of the money will go to minority and women-owned businesses, which have been disproportionately affected by the economic downturn created by the pandemic.

More involvement, more voting

The group also asked the public to vote.

“The most important general election since the Civil War is coming up on Nov. 3,” Owens said. “So we are calling on everyone who cares about justice and righteousness in central Kentucky and beyond to vote in a manner that reflects your commitment. Your commitment to the fundamental eradication of systematic racial injustice.”

The statement also called on white religious leaders to be more public in supporting racial justice.

“We are extremely disappointed by our white counterparts,” Owens said. “Certainly, some white faith leaders openly encourage the very status quo that perpetuates the malignant cancer of racism in our community. But perhaps even more disheartening is that our white faith leaders – many try to encourage us privately while they publicly remain silent.”

Peoples said the leaders will follow up with local leaders in about a week, and they’re committed to working together to enact reforms. Peoples said they will hold local leaders accountable.

“We expect all officials to work with us to achieve solutions in these areas,” Owens said.

Reporter Beth Musgrave contributed to this report.

This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 2:38 PM.