‘Standing together’: Hundreds silently march through KC to protest police killings
Hundreds of people marched silently Sunday evening through downtown Kansas City in solidarity with the families of those killed by police officers locally and nationally.
At least 600 marchers wore white shirts on which were written the names of people slain by officers. There was no chanting. Along the way, drivers honked, holding their fists out of their windows to show their support.
“This is all of us standing together and knowing and understanding that this issue affects all of us,” Justice Horn, president of the local chapter of Black Lives Matter, said before the march.
The march was led by Horn and Sam Wells, who told the crowd at City Market Park, where the group began walking, that her grandfather was a Black Panther who died in Mississippi “to police brutality.”
“Today I am marching for him,” she said.
Organizers said the nature of the march reflected the NAACP’s 1917 Silent Protest Parade, when about 10,000 people marched down New York City’s Fifth Avenue following violence against black people across the country.
“They decided that they didn’t need to fight that day; they needed to mourn together,” Wells said.
The group marched in a line on sidewalks from the park through downtown on Main Street and into the Crossroads neighborhood. The marchers turned at East 19th Street and headed back to the park on Grand Boulevard.
Marchers held signs denouncing police brutality and calling for various reforms, including local control of the Kansas City Police Department. A board mostly appointed by the governor sets the department’s policies and hires its chief.
Some marchers wrote the names of men killed by Kansas City police on their shirts. That included Ryan Stokes, Terrance Bridges, Cameron Lamb and Donnie Sanders, who was unarmed when an officer fatally shot him in March following a traffic stop.
“KCPD has blood on their hands,” one sign read.
During the peaceful demonstration, one young woman dropped to her knees to write Breonna Taylor’s name on the sidewalk in pink chalk. Taylor was fatally shot in March by officers in her Louisville home.
The march came on the 10th day of protests in Kansas City, sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Earlier Sunday, dozens of people held a protest at Swope Park.
Before the march, a majority of the Minneapolis City Council said they supported disbanding their police force.
Asked about the news, Horn said much of the Kansas City Police Department’s funding could be used to fix other disparities in the city, such as economic development. It could be used, he said, to feed, house and educate residents.
“We should not be running our police department like we are, like a military,” Horn said.
More demonstrations are planned for next week, including a rally at 11 a.m. Monday outside City Hall in Kansas City, Kansas.
This story was originally published June 7, 2020 at 8:42 PM.
