BOSTON (AP) - A rally and vigil is planned in Boston on Friday to demand justice for a Kentucky woman killed by police in March.
The evening event in the newly renamed Nubian Square in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood is being organized by a youth group called Teen Empowerment Boston.
It’s among a number of mostly peaceful protests that have taken place in and around the city in recent days over the killing of black Americans by police.
The group said the Friday gathering is meant to remember Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman killed by police in her Louisville, Kentucky home on Mar. 13. Friday would have been her birthday.
Taylor was shot eight times by officers executing a search warrant on her home. Authorities say a man involved in a drug ring was receiving packages at the residence. The three officers involved in the incident are on administrative leave, and no charges have been filed.
Meanwhile, the state’s transit authority confirmed Friday that it would no longer use buses to help shuttle local police officers to and from protest sites. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has been criticized for closing subways stations and diverting transit services away from citizens during the protests.
Boston City Councilors also called on Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh to make good on his Thursday pledge to make the city a national leader in combating racism.
Councilor Michelle Wu, who has been considered to be a possible rival to Walsh in the next mayoral race, said on Twitter Friday that the city needs an independent civilian review board to investigate police misconduct.
The Democrat also said the police department’s body camera policy needs to be strengthened and that city law enforcement agencies should be banned from using facial recognition surveillance technology, which has been criticized as being racially discriminatory.
Councilor Lydia Edwards, meanwhile, said the city’s Planning and Development Agency needs to prioritize equity when it reviews major economic development projects.
She pointed to the city’s Seaport, the fast-growing but predominantly white waterfront destination that’s become an example of how minority residents and businesses were left out of the city’s building boom.
And Councilor Andrea Campbell said Walsh should commit to reviewing and changing the police department’s use-of-force policies within 60 days.
Walsh has said city leaders need to get “real work done, not separately as the Mayor and City Council, but together as one government.”
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