Hello Louisville Metro Council Democratic Caucus,
I am hoping you find this open letter well. I am publicly sending out this communication because it doesn’t happen often. What also seems to not be happening often is clear and precise conversations with community when necessary.
You all feed into the dangerous narrative set by the Republican party when you take drastic narratives without appropriate input. This seems to be a running theme.
The conditions at which LA, Chicago, NYC, etc, and other places around the country that are protesting do not exist in Louisville. Nor does the atmosphere from 2020 present itself at all. How do we know this? Because it doesn’t. Critically analyzing an issue or situation along with extensive study is apart of organizing. To properly apply a tactic is to know if it has been successful before and how it makes impact. You can’t say one thing and do another.
However, I dislike the fact that you all haven’t reached out to have a conversation about any protests. The wildest part of not reaching out is that you all know every last one of us and could have reached out at anytime during the last 4 weeks since the announcement of this major national day of resistance. One would have to think, how complacent it makes your leadership to incite that you would organize resistance against citizens who are extremely tired of the political games being of their lives.
This has been a monthly protest place all 2025. Same people show up every month. Some of you have been asked to speak, and a few show up consistently. So it’s really weird with this larger narrative that you all are using comes at a time when our federal government is taken over and bypassing the constitution to create sour discord- basically Martial Law.
In the future, please make a more consorted effort to contact folks that you know you need to be in communication with before making a decision about them and others well-being. It might also help you all make better choices together.
Please feel free to contact me at my number that you all have or the email that you use to email me with.
Sincerely,
Chanelle (Organizer with Black Lives Matter Louisville)
Notes On Protest Narratives
The shit I hate about people who don’t protest and the shit they say:
1. Protest don’t make money. Ever. They cost money and time of course but no one gets paid to protest nor can you make money at a protest unless you selling something. Folks getting paid from protests is they fucking business and I’d advise people to stay away from that conversation all together.
2. Protest get infiltrated all the time if it isn’t a demonstration or trained, executed civil disobedience. Are they wild, violent, etc? No. Not until law enforcement comes and uses force. Sometimes folks are wild but if someone uses more force than you, you only have 2 options. The narrative of ‘well, they should just walk away’ is easy to say when you aren’t the one getting attacked. Just FYI- it hurts whether you resist or fight back.
3. People are saying folks are signing up to protests. No, they aren’t. That’s a really weird take on gauging the protest that’s for a mass audience and needing to send out call to actions. Using the narrative of surveillance state is odd as well- we’re all under surveillance! A digital form that is optional isn’t going to make anyone less unsafe. You live in the capitalist country of America- they own every piece of information you use to do any amount of work and play in this country.
4. Protests do nothing is hilarious when protests and revolution have always disrupted power. No one has ever gained power over double-breasted suits and tightly gripped handshakes. People think those are power moves, and those are actually showdowns and attempting to maintain power. Folks will absolutely concede power at any time for any reason to fuck some shit up! Mostly due to insecurity.
I have more but most of these narratives are created by the privilege to maintain their status for the status quo. So the underprivileged don’t benefit at sharing these narratives because WE DON’T HAVE THE POWER.
Later…
