Mark off one more sport exploited by Black Lives Matter protesters: horse racing. Just like basketball, baseball, football and soccer, the Kentucky Derby had to be overshadowed by social justice protests. Louisville, KY, is where Breonna Taylor lived and died, and the Black Lives Matter disrupters were out in force to protest and turn the actual sporting event into a sideshow.
Saturday's Black Lives Matter report by Deadspin blogger Donovan Dooley explained how yet another sporting event took a back seat to social justice: "The entire sports world has rightfully been infused with attempts to achieve racial and social justice. The Kentucky Derby has become the latest event to see the spotlight shift to more important issues.
"We can no longer separate our worlds and live in ignorance as we watch these sports continue," he added.
On the 101st straight day of protest in Louisville, the Black Lives Matter crowd demanded the Derby be cancelled. Unlike the Milwaukee Bucks and the other snowflake teams that malingered instead of playing after the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake, the Derby held strong and went ahead with a field of 17 horses. The race itself was great and had a photo finish, but it was all overshadowed by the protests.
Outside Churchill Downs, BLM protesters clashed with "Back the Blue" chanting, flag-waving counter-protesters.
Those inside focusing on the big race could not be left in peace and spared the activism, either. Dooley said an airplane flew over the track displaying a banner calling for an arrest of the cops who killed Taylor (seen in photo). She died during a March 13 shoot-out ignited by her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who allegedly shot Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly while police were serving a warrant because he thought the home was being broken into. Numerous pro athletes have been demanding the arrest of the police officers who shot Taylor.
Dooley posted a tweet by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) and called him "one of the main men responsible for the lack of justice in Taylor’s shooting":
Today, while we honor a KY tradition with the running of the Derby, we remain cognizant of the community’s desire for answers in the investigation into the death of Ms. Breonna Taylor. We continue to move forward with our investigation, reviewing each fact to reach the truth.
Joe Drape's New York Times story on the protest-with-a-Triple-Crown-race-sideshow was just as biased as Dooley. The Derby was about "protests over racism and police violence in Louisville and beyond ... ."
Drape described a scene in which hundreds of people calling for racial justice lined the race track perimeter, shouting at police officers. Several members of an armed militia knelt in front of the police officers.
Greg Harbut, the African American owner of a thoroughbred horse entered in the Kentucky Derby, was pressured unsuccessfully by protesters to pull out of the event. He said he stands with BLM and wants justice for Taylor, but refused to pull his horse from the Kentucky Derby.
No sport is safe from the clutches of the BLM juggernaut, and later this week the NFL will take front and center in protest when its season begins on Thursday night.
