Group angry over protesters’ arrests walk out of Overland Park police board meeting
Protesters walked out of an Overland Park police oversight meeting after exchanges over arrests Friday at a protest for racial justice became heated.
The Overland Park Independent Board Against Racial Profiling and Non-biased Policing met for its quarterly meeting Monday at City Hall.
In addition to the board and city officials including Police Chief Frank Donchez, about 14 protesters attended the meeting.
One woman recounted the protest Friday night that led to multiple arrests.
Jalisa Davis told the board that several officers “surrounded us in riot gear as we were marching, from behind, swooping up several people, and slamming them to the floor as well as just manhandling people, pushing people.
“That’s not professionalism.”
Protesters also questioned why police officers were not wearing name badges.
In a statement released Monday night, the police department said officers were allowed to remove their name badges out of concerns that their personal information would be leaked online.
Tensions mounted Friday night when some protesters refused to walk on the sidewalk.
According to the city’s statement, municipal code requires pedestrians walk on a sidewalk when one is available.
Four people were arrested. Three were charged in municipal court while one man was charged in Johnson County District Court in connection with battery on a law enforcement officer after an officer suffered “scrapes and bruises on their knee,” the city said.
Board chairwoman Catalina Velarde said the meeting was not the appropriate venue for discussing Friday’s protest.
The meeting’s agenda said the board was to discuss five racial bias complaints in executive sessions and present their findings to the public.
“I guess we just need to wait until somebody is killed by a police officer, till we have another George Floyd,” a protester told the board.
As protesters walked out of the meeting, one woman yelled, “Do better.”
Outside city hall, the protesters spoke with city council members Holly Grummert and Paul Lyons.
Grummert said she supports a conversation separate from the board’s meeting.
“We can have a community conversation, I think that is a great idea,” she said. “Just make sure that everybody has a chance to be heard and that we keep moving social justice forward.”
Davis, the protester, said she felt like the group was dismissed.
“They keep talking conversation, but it needs to be real action because there’s a lot of places where we see discrimination,” she said.
The Overland Park Police Department released three body camera videos from Friday’s protest.
Davis said she wanted not just a select few videos to be released, but footage from all of the officers who responded to the protest.
