Militia Group Plans March This Saturday at Parc Sans Souci in Downtown Lafayette
A paramilitary organization has announced its plans to host a protest in downtown Lafayette this Saturday, October 3rd at Parc Sans Souci at 4:00 pm.
The Atlanta-based group is called the Not F****** Around Coalition (NFAC), and they'll be marching to protest the shooting death of Trayford Pellerin at the hands of Lafayette Police.
Lafayette Consolidated Government spokesman Jamie Angelle told KLFY that the group has applied for a permit for the protest, but would not go into details regarding security matters. He did note that law enforcement "will obviously have officers and security there to protect both spectators and marchers."
Angelle said he did not know how many people NFAC is planning to bring to Lafayette. He said LCG would release more information regarding the protest in the coming days.
The NFAC is led by former U.S. presidential candidate John Fitzgerald Johnson, also known as "Grandmaster Jay." The group claims it is not affiliated with Black Lives Matter or the Black Panther Party.
In July, Johnson was quoted in Newsweek as saying, "We are a Black militia. We aren't protestors, we aren't demonstrators. We don't come to sing, we don't come to chant. That's not what we do."
The NFAC was most recently in Louisville, Kentucky protesting the death of Breonna Taylor. While the Louisville Courier-Journal reported 300 members of the armed militia showed up to protest, a YouTube video posted by the leader of the group claims they had 3,500 present. Despite a tension-filled day, which included counter-protestors, apparently, no violence erupted.