The head of a police union in Kentucky is calling for the removal of a cluster of banners featuring Breonna Taylor and Black Lives Matter messages.

Ryan Nichols, president of the River City Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge #614, said the banners are in violation of the public works department’s rules on banners, WLKY reports. Nichols referenced a section in the guidelines that states, “Banners will not be used to advertise individual business, self merchandise, products or service or to promote organizations or issues within the message.”

The police union president said the downtown #Breeway banners have anti-law enforcement symbolism.

"These have a direct anti-police tie to them. There's nothing wrong with trying to, in some way, shape, or form, memorialize a lost loved one, being Breonna Taylor. But in the format that they chose to do that and supporting organizations and issues within that message violate the guidelines, so they need to come down," Nichols said.

Went out to support Grand Rapids native Breonna Taylor and her family's continued fight for justice. I'm not a very good painter but I was glad to help. #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor
#BREEWAYY
pic.twitter.com/K02VXUni6C

— Jackson Buckler (@Big_Buck70) September 6, 2020

Rebecca Matheny, executive director of the Louisville Downtown Partnership that manages the banners display, said the organization has almost always regarded the restrictions to apply only to business advertisements .

"These banners are not advertising or promoting anything for sale, or anything that is sort of a commodity," she said.

According to WLKY, the banners were paid for with $5,000 in private donations raised by supporters of Taylor’s family who said the signs represent a future of peace in the struggle for racial equity.

"We also understand that a number of people are very upset about this, and there are also a number of people that don't understand why it took as long to get something of this nature in the public realm," Matheny said.

Despite Nichols' concerns, it appears the banners are going to stay where they are.

Matheny said there are no immediate plans to remove any of the banners, despite Nichols’ calls to the mayor's office, the chief of public safety and the Metro Council asking the banners be taken down, WLKY reports.

On Tuesday, the city of Louisville announced that it reached a historic $12 million settlement with Taylor’s family that included a list of police reforms, as Blavity previously reported.

According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the settlement is the largest payout given to someone by the city, eclipsing the $8.5 million given in 2012 to Edwin Chandler for serving a wrongful prison sentence.

Nichols said the police union is open to negotiating on the reforms like expanding drug testing for officers and keeping a larger database of police personnel records, WLKY reports. But he showed aversion to others, like reforms to rules that would require search warrants be approved by commanding officers.

He admitted he doesn’t believe many of the reforms being requested would have prevented Taylor from being killed in the early morning of March 13, if they were implemented at the time.

"I don't see how these things would have changed any actions that occurred in this case," Nichols said. "The commanding officers up to and including the chief's staff were well aware of those warrants being executed, what the purpose and intent and focus of that investigation was. They knew.”

The FOP president also criticized the city for acting prematurely by settling the lawsuit before the criminal investigation is complete.

"Especially if the investigation shows the actions the police took were within the boundaries of the law and they didn't violate anything, maybe that settlement doesn't look the same," he said.

Ryan-Nichols

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