Protesters in standoff with police on Main St. as Kansas City protests enter 3rd night
A chaotic scene unfolded along Main Street just north of the Country Club Plaza on Sunday night as protesters congregated on the thoroughfare after fleeing clouds of tear gas.
Protesters dragged barricades, traffic cones and a trash can to form a barrier across Main Street. At one point, a protester lit a fire near the barricade before others who remained insistent on a peaceful demonstrated put it out.
Later, a television news van belonging to KSHB-41 was set on fire on 46th Street just off Main Street.
More than 100 protesters gathered on Main Street well after an 8 p.m. curfew and were at something of a standoff with police, who stood in formation across Main Street near the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain.
Buildings along Main Street near the Plaza, many of which were boarded up in fear of looting, were festooned with graffiti.
“Rest in peace Floyd,” read one stream of graffiti, an homage to George Floyd, who died when Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin stuck his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. Protests fanned out across the country in response to the outrage over Floyd’s death, the latest example of what protesters said was police brutality against a black man.
Kansas City is in its third night of protests. Demonstrations were fairly peaceful on Friday but descended into chaos late on Saturday night.
Kansas City officials called for an 8 p.m. curfew. More than 1,000 people gathered in Mill Creek Park for much of Sunday afternoon.
As the 8 p.m. curfew arrived, police decided to let demonstrators stick around as matters remained fairly calm. But not long after, tear gas canisters were released by police officers to disperse the crowd.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas after 10 p.m. expressed his frustration with protesters who were throwing objects and setting fires long after the curfew expired.
“When you’re talking about projectiles being thrown, a Dumpster being lit on fire, making a Molotov cocktail that’s being thrown, that’s not helping anyone,” Lucas said.
This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 10:33 PM.
