When I first came to Louisville, I was pleasantly surprised about what I perceived to be the generally good racial atmosphere. I moved from Buffalo, and my neighborhood here (both where I lived then and where I live now) were, despite their leafy suburbanness, well mixed or at least more mixed than my Buffalo area neighborhood. In walks around town I thought I saw many more mixed race couples.
To give some context to this gun waving episode: Bardstown Road is our local semi-Bohemian strip - lots of independent and decent restaurants (I've not been to this one) and tattoo places and independent bookstores and what billed itself as the largest independent record store east of the Mississippi (closed a few years back) and it's where you go if you want to watch emos and goths and zombie night.
So Bardstown Road is the most 'as you like' section of Louisville which in turn is far more 'liberal' than the rest of Kentucky. The BLM protestors, because this is the hometown of Breanna Taylor, might have expected to be on 'home' territory here. The guy with the gun probably wasn't.
This restaurant has an outdoor area which adjoins the sidewalk. There is, as far as I know, no 'fence' between them - I could be wrong. And of course Kentucky Derby Day is the opportunity for all Louisville to make a packet and it's the top revenue day of the year for many businesses. Add that to COVID restrictions and it wouldn't surprise me if they squeezed an extra table or two at the cost of a few square feet of sidewalk. Again, I don't know, I'm speculating. The killing of Ms Taylor in her own home is now about 14 months ago but it's still fresh in the minds of many, including me. The protests were bound to impinge on Louisville's day in the international sun.
And of course the cops were trying to keep the demonstrators off the roadway thus keeping it clear for traffic - that area is a pig at the best of times and I try to avoid it - and pushing them onto the sidewalk. Seems like a clash was pretty inevitable.
If you're ever in Louisville and want a decent French restaurant and are willing to pay for it, I recommend the
Brasserie Provence. About a mile from me and where we go for anniversaries etc.