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Kentucky Lawmaker Charged; Portland Fears Clashes: Protest Wrap

Anger Over Breonna Taylor Hits Streets in NYC, Chicago, Atlanta: Protest Wrap

The Kentucky lawmaker who sponsored a bill to end no-knock warrants was among the protesters arrested Thursday night in Louisville. State Representative Attica Scott, the state’s only Black female legislator, was released from jail Friday morning after being charged with first-degree rioting, a felony, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.

Scott was attending a demonstration after Kentucky’s governor issued another plea to the state attorney general to release all information from the investigation into the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.

In Portland, Oregon, thousands of members of the Proud Boys, a right-wing group, plan to rally at a park on Saturday afternoon, the Washington Post reported. The rally sets up another clash in a city that has seen violent protests for months. Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency and announced plans to send state troopers and sheriffs deputies to Portland through the weekend to help police monitor the rally and counter protests, the Associated Press reported.

Key Developments:

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, the 17-year-old charged in the shooting deaths of two protesters is fighting his extradition from Illinois, but his attorneys didn’t outline their strategy during a brief hearing on Friday and legal experts say there isn’t much the teen can do to stop it, the Associated Press reported.

Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested at his home in Antioch, Illinois, a day after prosecutors allege he shot and killed two protesters and injured a third on the streets of Kenosha on Aug. 25. His attorneys have said Rittenhouse acted in self-defense and have portrayed him as a courageous patriot who was exercising his right to bear arms during unrest over the shooting of Blake, who is Black.

President Donald Trump, who has been highly critical of Black Lives Matter protesters while touting himself as the law-and-order candidate, made an appeal to Black voters, a group poised to vote overwhelmingly against him in November. Trump spoke Friday in Atlanta, capital of the swing state of Georgia.

Democrats “want to take the Black voter for granted, and they have taken the Black voter for granted,” Trump said as he announced a plan to promote economic policies to benefit Black Americans.

New York Attorney General Letitia James recommended that New York City police should be removed from enforcing low-level traffic enforcement. As officials nationwide are re-evaluating the role of law enforcement, she said that “the vast majority” of traffic stops “do not involve criminal conduct, yet often end in violence.”

Her recommendation came in a report on the death of Allan Feliz, shot in the Bronx by a police sergeant last October after being pulled over for not wearing a seat belt. The sergeant said he feared being run over. James said she could not bring criminal charges because “we could not prove that the use of deadly force was unjustified beyond a reasonable doubt.”

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