LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Day or night, if there are protests in Louisville someone is usually holding up a cell phone live streaming the events for all to see on Facebook.

What You Need To Know


  • Those live streaming Louisville protests feel targeted

  • There is now a formal group for those that stream

  • LMPD says if those streaming are protesting the must follow rules

  • New group called Independent Media Guild
 

Some of those folks have amassed quite the following with tens of thousands of people watching the streams.

One of the streamers is 104.7 host and WAVE FM owner Antonio Taylor. He said he thinks it's important to capture these events that will shape history.

"We all went into this just wanting to document the movement that was going on in America as we continued our push for justice and police reform," Taylor said.

Another is Maxwell Mitchell. You may recall Spectrum News 1 interviewed Mitchell after he caught the events leading up to Tyler Gerth's death on his live stream. After recent arrests of some other live streamers in town, Mitchell said he feels like Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) are targeting him and others who have the camera rolling. 

We reached out to LMPD about this to which a department spokesperson responded that LMPD has no issue with anyone live streaming, but many of them are also protesting. LMPD said anyone protesting who fails to follow police orders to disperse may be arrested.

Tara Bassett is also out there live streaming consistently. She said all of them have been looking out for one another, but now there is a way to make it official through the recent formation of the Independent Media Guild. A spokesperson for this group said the aim is to protect First Amendment rights, include more voices, and provide support to those streamers and others documenting the protests.

"Anyone with a phone in their hand has as many rights as any of us to document what is happening and have first amendment privileges as long as we don't break the law," Bassett said. 

Through joining forces through the Independent Media Guild, they hope to have a greater impact on protecting free speech for all. The group is currently working on coordinating efforts with the ACLU. Anyone who would like to contact the group can do so at independentmediaguild@gmail.com.