Kansas City charges 230 in protests but Lucas considers pardon for nonviolent offenses
After Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker on Thursday denounced the filing of municipal charges against nonviolent protesters, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he would consider pardoning them.
In a statement, Baker made clear her office has not filed charges against protesters arrested during recent demonstrations on the Country Club Plaza for minor offenses, such as stepping off a street curb.
Those were filed by the city prosecutor’s office, which reports to Lucas and the City Council.
Police arrested 230 protesters in Kansas City between Friday and Wednesday night. Most are accused of not complying with police’s orders.
Chris Hernandez, a city spokesman, said it was important to remember that city and state charges are filed differently.
At the municipal level, tickets are automatically added to an electronic system, which sees thousands of charges each week in Kansas City, he said.
During an initial review, staff check to see if there is enough information to issue a summons, Hernandez said. But a more “in-depth” review comes later.
“I think some people might have in their mind that, ‘Oh, why did they even file these charges in the first place?’” he said. “Well, that’s how it works at the state level, but at the municipal level, it’s pretty much just electronic checkmarks pushing through the system and then the review happens later.”
Hernandez said given “this is a special circumstance,” the city prosecutor is going to make a special effort to review these particular charges prior to people getting to their court dates.
Lucas was asked during a news conference Thursday afternoon if he would consider pardoning all nonviolent protesters. He said he would and noted many of the citations were for nonviolent offenses, including people stepping off of a sidewalk.
Also Thursday, City Councilman Brandon Ellington, 3rd District at-large, introduced legislation that would shield many from prosecution.
Lucas said he understood the need to comply with orders, but since “those folks were actually removed from the protest at the time, is there an ongoing need to have them hire lawyers, have counsel representation so that they can, for whatever reason, deal with a ticket in some small amount?”
He agreed the city needs to be “judicious” in the charges it pursues. “It is fairly clear that a nonviolent offender who has not been accused of any destruction to property or any threat to persons may instead actually not need to be charged,” Lucas told reporters.
230 arrests
Between the first protest Friday and the protest Wednesday, 230 protesters were arrested by Kansas City police, department spokesman Sgt. Jake Becchina said Thursday.
Friday, the first day of demonstrations in and around the Country Club Plaza, saw five arrests. Saturday and Sunday had the most, with 83 and 63, respectively, according to data provided by the Kansas City Police Department. Fifty protesters were arrested Monday and 25 Tuesday. Wednesday’s protests resulted in only four arrests.
An analysis of each municipal citation requested by The Star provides a breakdown of who was cited and why as thousands of protesters gathered across the first six days of Kansas City protests in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
The data, provided by the municipal court, only includes cases submitted by police to the city prosecutor that have also been filed with the city prosecutor. The Star received 230 names in response, matching up with the number of arrests reported by police. Some individuals received more than one charge.
Failure to comply with police
The majority of the citations, 189 in total, fell under the category of failure to comply with police. Most of these cases were listed as failure to remain on the sidewalk or failure to move out of the street when ordered to do so.
Thirty protesters were charged with obstructing or resisting police. This included more failures to stay out of the street and resisting arrest, whether by refusing to be placed in handcuffs, attempting to run from police or pulling away from police.
Three protesters were charged with assault. One allegedly threw a blunt object and hit an officer in the groin. The other two are accused of punching police.
Five attempted assault charges include allegations of individuals throwing water bottles, a gas canister, cans and rocks at officers. All but one of the five arrests were made Saturday.
Eleven protesters were charged with disorderly conduct. Descriptions of their charges include fighting in public and throwing objects in a community space.
Five people were charged with failure to comply with the mayor’s curfew, in place Sunday evening into the early hours of Monday.
One protester was charged with hindering arrest after allegedly getting between officers and a person they were trying to take into custody.
One protester was charged with defacing property for allegedly spray painting the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain. A protester accused of throwing rocks at a car was charged with destruction of property.
One protester was charged with failure to use a sidewalk, one with loitering in the street and one with not crossing the street within the crosswalk.
White men cited the most
The largest demographic of those cited were white men, with 83 individuals facing municipal court charges. The other citations were handed out to 64 black men, 41 white women, 27 black women and nine men and six women whose races were unknown, according to the data.
Almost all of those cited live within an hour’s drive of Kansas City, according to court records. About half of the 230 protesters were from Kansas City. Others hailed from Overland Park, Olathe, Mission, Leawood, Belton, Lee’s Summit, Independence and Lawrence.
One protester was from St. Louis while two others were from Omaha, Nebraska. A handful of protesters also listed their addresses as Cocoa, Florida; Woodland Park, Colorado; Austin, Texas; Norcross, Georgia; and Long Beach, California.
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 5:36 PM.
