Protesters march in downtown Las Vegas for victims of police brutality

Record-breaking heat and nearly 5 miles of marching seemed to only strengthen the group of about 100 protesters who gathered Saturday night in downtown Las Vegas to call for justice for victims of police brutality.

Justice For Breonna Taylor and the Las Vegas Victims of Police Terrorism March began outside Las Vegas City Hall with a vocabulary lesson from activist and minister Stretch Sanders. He said this Saturday’s event was part of his Struggle Saturday series, which also includes educational workshops and networking events for other activists to plan future rallies.

Sanders explained why he chooses to use the word terrorism instead of police brutality. “Throw away the word brutality and start calling it what it is. Brutality is a euphemism,” he said. “When an officer can sit on your neck for eight minutes, ain’t nothing brutal about that.”

He commended the group that gathered before the march for being committed to the movement and not making excuses, like some others.

“They make time to go to all these different places but they say, ‘Oh no, the pandemic.’ Think about where they were before March,” Sanders said. “This is an excuse.”

Before the march, he told the group not to engage with police because he said the march isn’t about starting a dialogue.

“If the police really cared they would reach us and say we’ll reopen every case up until now,” he said. “They want to bring us in and talk about better forms of policing. ‘What do we do different?’ Stop killing us!”

Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot in March inside her Louisville, Kentucky home by police officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove. Hankison was fired in June, while Mattingly and Cosgrove were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

In addition to Taylor, the group also chanted for Tashii Brown, who was beaten and tased by Las Vegas police in 2017; Jorge Gomez, who was shot 19 times June 1 by police who were not wearing body cameras; and Byron Williams, who was killed a year ago Saturday when police put a knee in his back while pulling him over while riding a bicycle.

Brown’s family reached a tentative $2.2 million settlement with the Metropolitan Police Department in July. Gomez’ family filed a lawsuit two weeks ago and Williams family announced plans to file a lawsuit Saturday.

Jason Kordosky, 37, said Saturday was one of many rallies for him. The Las Vegas resident wore a Black Lives Matter shirt and held a sign that read “Say her name.”

“All the action we can do to push politicians to do what they can,” Kordosky said.

Karen Pettit, 40, of northwest Las Vegas, said she’s followed Sanders for several years, hearing him speak in different states. She said she appreciated the way he led the group into “baby steps of civil disobedience,” like crossing the street when stop lights were green.

“It got me a little bit motivated,” she said. “Who’s going to be disobedient? Somebody needs to do it.”

Pettit held a sign that said, “They should be here too,” which she said was inspired by Taylor’s mom after Pettit once heard her say her daughter should still be alive.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.