Kansas City police said Plaza protesters were from out of town. Records show otherwise
Minutes before police deployed tear gas on protesters Saturday, a Kansas City police spokesman said “these folks” breaking the law on the Country Club Plaza were not from Kansas City.
“We want to reach out to the folks that do live in Kansas City, Missouri, to say today in Kansas City, Missouri, we’re all first responders,” Capt. David Jackson told reporters. “We do not want people to come in here and break our laws, and we are getting to the point where we have a bunch of people breaking the law right now.”
But of the 151 people arrested from Friday to Sunday, just 12 — about 8% — were from more than an hour drive away, police later said.
Of those arrested over the weekend, at least 50 listed their addresses in Kansas City, according to partial data obtained Tuesday by The Star. Others came from nearby parts of the region: Overland Park, Olathe, Mission, Leawood, Belton, Lee’s Summit, Independence and Lawrence.
One Dover, Missouri, resident was arrested. Two were from St. Louis. Two other men, 46 and 20, were from Omaha.
“That pretty much kills the theory of outside agitators, does it not?” one reporter asked Police Chief Rick Smith on Monday after police released the figure of 12 out-of-town arrests among 151.
Smith appeared to walk back the notion of outside troublemakers, saying he did not know what “their intentions were to get here,” but noting something brought them to police’s attention.
“I can’t say that with any definite, you know, positive reinforcement that that happened,” Smith said.
The reporter followed up: Was 12 not a substantial number of those arrested?
“No,” Smith said. “I think what we have is mainly local people here, that have been here.”
Five people were arrested Friday, 83 Saturday and 63 Sunday, police said. The arrests were for municipal charges associated with the protests. One was also related to a narcotics offense. Several were legally armed.
More than 60 of the arrests were for failing to comply with police. Some were for disorderly conduct and failing to use a sidewalk. At least one was for hindering the arrest of another. Others were for attempted assault.
One woman, 30, was charged with assault for allegedly punching an officer in the chest, records show.
Plaza protests
Many were arrested at West 47th Street and J.C. Nichols Parkway, where at times police officers and protesters clashed on the street. Those arrested ranged in age from 17 to 60.
On Monday, more than 20 people were arrested during the fourth day of protests, bringing the total since Friday to at least 171.
Henry C. Service, an organizer with the protest group Enough is Enough, said he thinks pointing to outsiders gives the police department cover to use force against its own residents.
“If it makes them feel better to think they’re just beating up foreigners and outsider agitators, that’s one thing,” said Service, a Kansas City attorney. “But these are our local citizens.”
People across the country are protesting police brutality after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck during an arrest on May 25 in Minneapolis.
So angry demonstrators don’t have to drive to Kansas City to break windows; they can do that in their own towns, Service said.
“People aren’t going to loot and then go back to a hotel,” Service said.
Jackson County prosecutors also charged four people who on Saturday allegedly stole clothing, tennis shoes and other items from three stores that were vandalized on the Plaza during the protests. Each was from Kansas City.
As demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis grew in cities across the U.S., various officials over the weekend warned of “outsiders” flooding into major cities not to call for justice, but to cause destruction.
Initially, for example, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said he had been told all of those arrested in his city Friday were from outside the state. But a spokesman said Saturday night the mayor later learned more than half were from Minnesota.
Asked about possible out-of-town troublemakers Monday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas noted officials in the Twin Cities incorrectly said a majority of people were from elsewhere, but it turned out “it was the exact opposite.”
Kansas City officials, Lucas said, were not making the same claim.
“You haven’t heard that from this mayor; you haven’t heard that from this police department,” he told reporters. “We’re here to make sure whoever is here is safe, whether you’re from far away or somewhere close.”
But about 8 p.m. Saturday, before a night in which dozens of people were arrested, tear gas was deployed and a squad car was set on fire, Jackson said police were receiving information “that these folks do not live in Kansas City, Missouri.”
“They are posting and bragging about it on social media,” Jackson said, noting some were causing injuries. “They’re increasing their level of violence.”
Some threw rocks at officers and others blocked an ambulance trying to take a patient to a hospital, Jackson said. He called on protesters from Kansas City to “represent their community the way they want their community represented.”
Whether they were from his street or three hours away, Lucas said Monday, the city did not need people destroying businesses.
“There is no need for that here,” he said. “Go somewhere else with your time.”
The Associated Press and The Star’s Glenn Rice contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 2:54 PM.
