Kansas City mayor says he won’t issue curfew Tuesday while protests continue at Plaza
Mayor Quinton Lucas won’t issue a curfew to curb protests in Kansas City on Tuesday, he announced via Twitter late in the afternoon.
Lucas issued a curfew on Sunday night after Saturday protests over police brutality and the death of George Floyd, a black man, in the custody of Minneapolis police gave way to vandalism and a police car was set on fire. He did not issue a curfew Monday.
Floyd’s death sparked protests and riots across the globe. Protesters have occupied parts of the Country Club Plaza each afternoon since Friday, and around 170 have been arrested.
But in his tweet, Lucas said Kansas City would not issue a curfew Tuesday “despite that path being seen today in St. Louis, New York and many other American cities.”
“We have reached the point in our city and our country where de-escalation needs to be our guide,” Lucas said.
In a subsequent tweet posted around 4:40 p.m., he said police officers were to “respond only when needed” and noted there were “no police officers on the line right now around Mill Creek Park.”
Kansas City funds the Kansas City Police Department, but Lucas and the City Council have little say in the way it runs.
Kansas City remains the only city in Missouri and one of the largest in the United States that doesn’t have local control of its police department. The police department is controlled by a board appointed by the Missouri governor, not the mayor.
In 2013, the Missouri General Assembly voted to grant St. Louis authority to run its police force. Local control of the Kansas City Police Department will be among the topics that a newly formed public safety study group is expected to address.
Some groups have argued that local oversight would inject politics into the management of the police department.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 5:26 PM.
