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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Mayor Greg Fischer continues to make bold statements about media coverage of the protests in downtown Louisville sparked after the death of Breonna Taylor last year. Some of these protests were marred by riots, causing lasting damage to the city center.
As the 2020 protests were at their peak, Jefferson Square Park was known as Ground Zero. However, during protests that lasted for months, rioters distorted the social justice message by looting businesses and destroying property, raising concerns among large sections of the population that they were going to the city center.
The mayor ordered Metro Hall to be barricaded for the better half of last year, during the summer of continued protests.
Don Davis, co-owner of JJs Wig Shop, said he and his wife returned to their livelihoods to find it completely destroyed after being looted during protests last year. Although this is a work in progress, they are once again able to operate as a business with some precautions.
It was pretty scary, Davis said. We were going to spend most of those months with boarded up windows. We would be lucky to have one or two clients. We were pretty worried about how things were going to turn out. It could be better, it’s far from like that, but it’s much better than last summer.
According to Fischer, downtown Louisville’s dangerous reputation grew out of media coverage of the protests. This is a statement Davis does not buy into.
To say this has been exaggerated by the media is the craziest thing, Davis said. The downtown area was covered with our windows and other businesses for seven months. Not a month or a week seven months before we felt comfortable removing the wood from our window. I would say it would be up to the mayor’s office.
Still, on Thursday, Fischer told Dawne Gee on WAVE Country that the media focused on the evil and cast a negative light on downtown Louisville.
You said the media give the impression that downtown is unsafe, do you really believe that? Gee asked the mayor. We show what’s going on. We do not make up what is going on.
The media isolates a situation and when you run your news with that, there is no doubt in my mind that the media is amplifying the situation, Fischer said.
To watch Fischer and Gees’ full interview on WAVE Country, click here or watch the clip below.
Copyright 2021 WAVE 3 News. All rights reserved.
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