Video shows KC protester pepper sprayed, arrested after yelling at police
A viral video captured a protester in Kansas City getting pepper sprayed in the face and then arrested after yelling at police and accusing them of overreacting with aggressive force.
The video, viewed nearly half a million times, was posted on Twitter on Saturday evening. It shows a line of police standing at ease in the street at the Country Club Plaza amid this weekend’s protests over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
A protester steps forward from the crowd and yells at officers. He said police “overreact in the moment,” accusing them of “prematurely shooting people” and “prematurely using excessive force.”
“If you ain’t got the balls to protect the streets and protect and serve like you was paid to do, turn in your damn badge,” he said.
Seconds later, the video shows several officers approach the man and another demonstrator, dousing them with pepper spray canisters. The man was pulled into the street and then taken into custody.
Kansas City Police spokesman Sgt. Jacob Becchina said the man was arrested for “municipal/city protest related charges.”
As the man was taken to the ground, the crowd responded with expletives of incredulity. One man in the crowd can be heard yelling, “he has a First Amendment right!”
Several officers then began pepper spraying other members of the crowd as some lobbed objects at police.
Becchina said the individual arrested did not resist.
“However, the associated response from the crowd was aggressive and violent by throwing various objects and physically interfering with the arrest, which is also a crime for which they were not arrested for at that time,” he told The Star. “That is what led to the officers response with pepper spray.”
Becchina said the man was pepper sprayed because he stepped into the street.
Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith told reporters Monday afternoon that he had not seen the video.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said he had seen the viral post, but said he had “absolutely no information about the video.”
Lucas would not weigh in on the incident itself, but said police and city officials planned to review video of it and other confrontations from the ongoing protests.
“I believe in accountability. The chief believes in accountability,” Lucas said. “...What I’m saying is based off of Twitter, I’m not just giving a review and an answer and a recommendation. What I am saying is we will make sure that we quickly and efficiently look to everything that’s occurred and to the extent either changes need to be made or any other decisions made, we’ll do it.”
In three days of protests, more than 150 people were arrested in Kansas City, police said.
Across the country, advocates have accused police of using excessive force against demonstrators. Police forces have deployed tear gas, pepper spray, drove vehicles through crowds and fired rubber bullets at protests across the country, Slate reported.
The Kansas City video, just longer than a minute in duration, has elicited dozens of negative comments about the police’s handling of the incident.
“WE are disappointed.,” wrote the woman who posted the video. “This man was using his WORDS and was responded to with WEAPONS.”
The Star’s Glenn E. Rice contributed to this story.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 1:20 PM.
