‘What’s about to happen?’: Police deploy tear gas, armed with shields, batons on KC Plaza

A protest at the Country Club Plaza took a tense turn at about 8 p.m. when Kansas City police officers deployed tear gas in the middle of a crowd.

A white plume of smoke could be seen billowing from just north of 47th Street and JC Nichols Parkway.

People started running from the fumes, crying and asking for milk to be poured into their eyes.

The Kansas City Police Department tweeted that they respect everyone’s right to protest peacefully and used tear gas to “encourage people to remain out of the street in compliance with city ordinances.”

“We will continue to ensure a peaceful night for everyone,” KCPD’s tweet said.

But protesters did not appear to take it as a peaceful night.

When a tear gas canister landed near Logan Sullivan, 28, of Lafayette County, he kicked it back toward police officers.

Sullivan described it as “hot as hell.” He said he saw another person use a tennis racket to hit a gas canister back toward police.

Just before 9 p.m. police officers started assembling shields, batons, gas masks and the like — and began taking formation in the street.

“Why are they gearing up,” one woman could be heard saying. “What’s about to happen?”

It was a marked change in tone from Friday night when protesters marched, chanted, occasionally taunted police officers but largely kept the peace. There was some pepper spray on Friday as midnight approached, and five people were taken into custody at 1 a.m. after some property damage.

But on Saturday night, five people were already placed under arrest only hours after the protest started, a sign of things to come.

“This has just been disappointing,” Jackson said around 9 p.m. “This was declared unlawful some time ago.”

Some parts of the protest have scattered to other parts of the city. Demonstrators have blocked traffic and sat in the streets.

Fire were set in Mill Creek Park, Jackson said. One person burned a flag. A patrol car was vandalized.

Fewer than 10 people have been injured, including officers and protesters. All had minor injuries, Jackson said.

As Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Jackson addressed reporters, one man walked by and cursed them.

“I’m disappointed by what we saw,” said Lucas, who earlier in the day had praised protesters and officers for a relatively calm protest the night before..

Just prior to the the tear gas emission on Saturday a police spokesman spoke to increasing tension at the protest.

“We are getting to the point where we have a bunch of people breaking the law,” said Capt. David Jackson. “They are posting and bragging about it on social media. They are causing injuries.”

Jackson said some people were throwing rocks and blocking an ambulance on its way to a hospital.

“These are the types of things that we are not going to put up with.” Jackson said. “We will be breaking up this unlawful assembly.”

This story was originally published May 30, 2020 at 8:26 PM.