‘Disappointed:’ Mayor Lucas frustrated after protest turns violent in Kansas City
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas expressed his disappointment Sunday night after officers reported that objects were thrown at them and police fired rounds of tear gas into crowds protesting against police brutality.
“I was here at 8 p.m. talking to everybody and it seemed like things were going well,” Lucas said.
The protest, however, took a “disappointing turn.” That was despite the city’s concessions to let protesters march in the street and give them more time to demonstrate, Lucas said.
“The crowd was bigger today,” Lucas said. “We had people in the thousands. And a lot of people, I think, came out, made their voices heard. A lot of them went home at 8 o’clock or before.”
Even after that, there were still protesters on the Plaza who were marching and chanting.
“Certainly, that is something that we welcome,” Lucas said.
What is not welcomed is projectiles being thrown, a Dumpster set ablaze, people trying to make Molotov cocktails, he said.
The protest took a turn after a curfew went into effect at 8 p.m. About 11 minutes later the police department encouraged people to go home, but it said officers would not take enforcement action unless “the peace is disrupted.”
Shortly thereafter, police said bottles had been thrown at officers. They told protesters that the assembly was unlawful and that everyone must leave.
Police said they were forced to fire tear gas at protesters to disperse the “unruly crowd.” After that, they fired tear gas at the protesters multiple times.
This came on the third day of protests on the Country Club Plaza. Earlier Sunday, Lucas told reporters he was proud of the protesters who had remained peaceful.
But after the protest took a turn, Lucas said protesters needed to get back to the reason for the protest.
“The purpose of the night, of the day, of the moment is to try to address issues of community police relations, try to make sure we are looking at and addressing police brutality, try to make sure we are actually caring about black lives in our country,” Lucas said.
He doesn’t see how the turn in the protest was aiding that.
“It’s not getting us anywhere,” he said.
Lucas said he knows that people were heard by him and the police department. The police department is already making changes, he said.
“If there are changes that we need to make as early as tomorrow, we will do that,” he said. “If there are changes that need to make going forward, we will do that.
“What we are not going to do is just let foolishness exist all night.”
This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 11:02 PM.
