Hundreds march to KCPD’s East Patrol Station as protests continue
On the eighth night of protest of police brutality in Kansas City, the scene and circumstances changed.
In addition to another demonstration at Mill Creek Park and the Country Club Plaza, the tony shopping district adorned with its own lasting symbols of the city’s racism, about 200 people on Friday night took to the Kansas City Police East Patrol station, a sprawling fortress-like law enforcement campus built at 27th and Prospect, not without controversy.
It was another afternoon and evening of demonstrations following the May 25 death of George Floyd. Floyd was killed as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest. Floyd’s death has sparked nationwide and even international protests in response.
Protesters at East Patrol took turns with a megaphone, sharing their stories and, among some, their anguish. Facing the predominantly black crowd was a line of police officers who stood and listened.
“When are we going to get our chance to be equal?” asked Sedrick Ward. “I’m tired of these tears.”
Ward, 30, said he lives a half minute from his mother’s house. Ward said his mother warns him to avoid wearing a hoodie, even when traveling the 30 seconds to visit her. Ward said his mother worried about him attending Friday’s demonstration.
“Because of her fear of these people,” Ward said, gesturing toward the line of police officers.
Friday’s demonstration started at about 4 p.m. in Spring Valley Park on 27th Street just off U.S. Highway 71.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas joined the demonstration at Spring Valley Park, but by the time demonstrators marched to East Patrol, it was a marked difference from the protests at the Plaza earlier this week and last. There were no politicians and few media members.
Most of the demonstrators sat and listened. At times, speakers had harsh words directed at officers.
“They sit here and laugh at us while we protest like it’s a joke,” said Khadijah Comeger, who attended the demonstration with her young children. “It’s not a joke.”
Police, for their part, kept to their side of the barricades. They stood still, they listened. After things started to wrap up at about 8:30 p.m., a few chose to mingle peacefully with a few demonstrators who remained.
Speakers noted it would have been Breonna Taylor’s 27th birthday on Friday. Taylor, a black woman in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot to death by police officers in March as they forced their way into her apartment while executing a search warrant. Taylor’s family is suing for wrongful death.
Other victims of police shootings — Cameron Lamb, Donnie Sanders, Ryan Stokes — were recalled on Friday.
“We were taken against our will, bested and forced to build this country,” said Lauren Taylor, adding later, “We have to unite as a people for anything to change.”
Only a handful of people were gathered at Mill Creek Park near the Plaza earlier in the afternoon. It was a calm affair; mostly people with signs displayed to cars honking as they passed on by. By the evening hours, about 200 to 300 were gathered.
At about 9:30 p.m., demonstrators poured out into the intersection of 47th Street and J.C. Nichols Parkway. Drivers were puzzled and police officers in motorcycles approached.
And then, the demonstrators marched west, filling 47th Street with signs and chants.
The police did not intervene. Instead, as the police department stated on Twitter, they blocked off streets from traffic as demonstrators marched a loop from 47th Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, Ward Parkway to Oak Street and back to Mill Creek Park.
It was a similar move the department made Thursday night as people marched across the shopping district. Police had announced hours earlier Thursday that for the first time in several days, all streets were back open through the Plaza.
Protesters paused here and there to remember black men and women slain by police over the years. The police kept their distance, blocking the way for a peaceful protest in the heat of the Friday night.
Earlier Friday, hundreds of protesters met at City Hall, where the mayor signed onto a list of demands from a group to reform the police department, including local control of the department.
Kansas City is the only city in Missouri that doesn’t have local control of its police department. Instead, the department is controlled by a board appointed by the Missouri governor.
The group was also demanding that Kansas City police put to use funding the department received earlier this week to equip its officers with body cameras. They were also asking for charges against nonviolent protesters to be dismissed.
Star reporter Allison Kite contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 6:47 PM.
