Source: Jon Cherry / Getty
Historically, those hellbent on keeping Black people oppressed have resorted to all sorts of tactics to intimidate civil rights activists. 2021 is no different. In an interview with The Shade Room, Until Freedom founder Tamika Mallory recalled an incident in which a drone followed her for several blocks after a Breonna Taylor demonstration in Louisville, Kentucky.
“They do intimidation tactics,” Mallory recalled. “It got down as low as possible and literally walked with me directly for about five blocks.”
The drone was so close that others began to notice it and walked over to take photographs. It only stopped following her after she blatantly acknowledged its presence.
“It’s walking with me and finally, I’m like, ‘Well, hey then!’ Clearly, you wanna say, ‘what it is?’ What’s up?’ Then finally, it kind of goes off after you acknowledge its there,” said Mallory.
Mallory went on to share that this was not her first time being followed before recalling another incident in Louisville where three drones followed her car.
“I had three over my car one day just a few months ago,” she added. “I called several people that I know who work within the police department and I asked, ‘Why are y’all following me?’ They said, ‘We’ll call you back,’ because they didn’t know. Usually, they do and they’ll say, ‘Well, one there’s a curfew outside and we’re getting ready to arrest you if you don’t get home.’ They’re not nice.”
Strangely, the New York-based activist says that officers with the police department called back and told her that they weren’t the ones following her.
“So I’ll call and I’ll ask and they’ll say, ‘Let’s see what’s going on.’ And they called me back and said, ‘We don’t have anything here where we’re surveilling you today,'” said Mallory
