Clergy in Kansas City go to City Hall demanding body cameras and a police review board
Body cameras and an independent review board for police were among the demands of a group of religious leaders from the Kansas City area who gathered at City Hall Wednesday to push for an end to police brutality.
The clergy’s action comes after large crowds descended on the Country Club Plaza for five days of protest. The demonstrations followed others around the country sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Protesters in Kansas City have brought their own criticisms of local police.
“We felt it necessary to make some demands,” said Emanuel Cleaver III, pastor at St. James United Methodist Church. “There is a long history of tension between minority communities and police. What happened to George Floyd is nothing new.”
Cleaver said the group demands the end of senseless police brutality and the killing of black men. All police officers, he said, should wear body cameras “and turn them on.”
The pastor also called for the implementation of an independent review board to examine allegations of police brutality. “If they don’t take action, then we will take action,” he said. The city’s Office of Community Complaints, an agency created as oversight for Kansas City police, sustained less than 2% of complaints in 2018 and lacks authority to investigate police shootings.
“So we are asking the police to police themselves but we need something independent, a group that actually has authority to do something when some of these complaints come forward,” Cleaver said.
The clergy said the protests that have been taking place since Friday night in Kansas City are the result of constant harassment of the minority community at the hands of police.
“It is a tragedy that America has forgotten her history,” said the Rev. Ronald Lindsay, senior pastor of Concord Fortress of Hope Church. “It is a tragedy that we have to keep repeating these lessons over and over and over.”
The clergy is demanding that police end all forms of excessive force, including the use of pepper spray on peaceful protesters.
The faith community also is demanding that local control of the Kansas City Police Department be returned to the city.
Kansas City is the only city in Missouri, and one of the largest cities in the United States, that doesn’t have local control of its police department. Instead, the police department is controlled by a board appointed by the Missouri governor.
The news conference comes at a time when organizers of the Kansas City protests say the purpose of their protest message has gotten lost with images of protesters clashing with police.
Mayor Quinton Lucas attended the press conference but did not speak. Afterward, Lucas said the energy and concern generated over five days of local protest must be sustained.
“This wasn’t a problem that was born up in a day and it is not going to be resolved in one moment. But what we have to do is to make sure is that we have a clear set of guides to make sure we are making some progress,” Lucas said.
Bishop Mark C. Tolbert, a member of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, attended the press conference and said he was encouraged by the engagement of local clergy. He said the police board needs to listen to their concerns.
“So when we get back in that room now people will say what we need to do,” Tolbert said. “Because we recognize that the stem has not only been lit but the bomb is gone off.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 10:31 AM.
