“Why not allow an EMT have the circle and fountain named in her honor and remembrance and her name,” local activist Christopher 2X of 2X Game Changers told Inside Edition Digital.
A group of local activists in Louisville, Kentucky, have come together to raise awareness and help get a section of a local park in the city named after Breonna Taylor.
On Friday afternoon, hours after the city of Louisville announced new legislation banning no-knock warrants, local activists 2X Game Changers, led by Christopher 2X, as well as Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, and Councilwoman Barabra Sexton Smith came together in Jefferson Park to formally announce their wish that a part of the park be renamed in honor of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor.
This weekend marked three months since Taylor was killed while she was sleeping as police opened fire into her Louisville apartment on March 13 as they executed a “no-knock” warrant in search of drugs. The cops involved in the incident have not been arrested, charged or fired.
Smith, who represents Louisville’s fourth Metro Council District, the 9th poorest district in the country, said the initiative to name the park came from 2X and said it was “a beautiful thing to honor Breonna Taylor.”
Jefferson Park is situated in a major judicial district of the city. It is encompassed by the pillars of local government including the halls of justice, city hall, metro corrections, and the commonwealth attorney office. It is also where local peaceful protesters have been gathering to demand justice for Taylor. Around the park are monuments to the city’s police and firefighters.
“Why not allow an EMT have the circle and fountain named in her honor and remembrance and her name,” local activist Christopher 2X of 2X Game Changers told Inside Edition Digital.
Christopher 2X, who has been in close contact with Taylor’s family as well as local and state officials, says that he wants the section of the park which contains a fountain and circle to be renamed “Breaonna Taylor Fountain Circle in Jefferson Park.
He initially announced the idea on June 6, what would have been Breonna’s 27th birthday. Members of the community gathered in that area of the park to release balloons in her honor.
At that same balloon release ceremony, many of the city’s medical workers came together to honor their fallen EMT in an effort known as “White Coats for Black Lives Matter.”
A week after the balloon release, the formal intention to rename the park by local activists and a push from Taylor’s family and the councilwoman, was made.
Christopher 2X, who has been an activist for two decades, says he is in awe of the young people of the city and around the world pushing for change in Breonna’s name as well as for George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.
“I am their cheerleader,” he said of the young activists. “I am there for them to lean on me.”
Christopher 2X, whose daughter is recovering from COVID-19, says that while the peaceful protesters in his city are socially distancing as best they can and wearing masks, he believes that “the young people are determined to have a voice and risk being infected and they are willing to take that risk.”
For Councilwoman Barbara Sexton Smith, who helped propose and push legislation to ban "no-knock" warrants in Louisville, said while she did not know Breonna personally but like many around the world have come to know her story, this is a small way to honor her and her legacy.
“This is so much bigger than Breonna Taylor,” she told Inside Edition Digital. “She will be celebrated in death more than she was in life and that is when you know your purpose on this Earth was well planned and you know your legacy will live on.”
While the investigation into Taylor’s death continues, Smith says she “will work every day toward getting justice.”
In doing so, she says then “this nation once and for all can never turn its back.”
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