Open letter to Kansas City mayor asks him to pick a side: police or the community
An open letter to Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas criticizes his response to Operation LeGend and his support corrupt of policing and asks him to pick a side. The letter also demands Lucas reject and condemn the federal operation, cut the police department’s budget and invest in the community.
The letter, signed by several community organizations including Black Rainbow, One Struggle KC and the Kansas City chapter of the NAACP, says Lucas allowed “undue civilian terror, functional martial law, and the obstruction of basic civil liberties,” when he invited federal agents into Kansas City. As a result, the letter continues, Chicago and Albuquerque also face “state-sanctioned terrorism.”
Operation LeGend, named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro who was shot and killed while sleeping in his bedroom last month, is a Department of Justice initiative aimed at helping curb violent crime in Kansas City.
The letter criticizes Lucas for being hypocritical by signing a letter alongside other mayors condemning the federal presence, but continuing to allow the federal agents. His office welcomed the operation the day before it was announced.
Black Rainbow KC organizer Ray Billis said the coalition of legacy civil rights organizations such as the NAACP chapter and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City alongside new organizations such as Black Rainbow is monumental.
“These organizations have never once been on the same piece of paper,” Billis said. “It speaks to the fundamentally unjust nature of the occupation.”
Due to the urgency in the moment, he said, the organizations have united. He added that the cause behind the coalition is unfortunate.
“The reason that I find it to be very much sad in a sense is we have a Black mayor who is impeding progress,” Billis said, “who is speaking out against what the Black community actually wants.”
The letter references protests in Portland, Oregon, where federal agents been “terrorizing communities,” and says “Our fundamental rights and liberties are at stake, and the nation’s eyes are on Kansas City.”
Lucas last week said the operation “is not tanks on the streets,“ and is “not a substitute patrol force.”
Timothy Garrison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said last week that Operation LeGend in Kansas City is in response to record violent crime numbers, not local protests, unlike the response in Portland.
“Our city will not be a testing ground for martial law,” the organizations wrote. “We will not be silent as you allow federal agents to invade our streets.”
Billis said every American who values freedom should be concerned about the federal presence.
Additionally, the letter expressed concerns about the “corrupt and predatory system of policing” Lucas has supported. The local Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Lucas during last year’s mayoral race.
Lucas has said he supports law enforcement. Last month, he signed onto a list of demands to reform the police department, including local control.
The letter cites the growth of the police department’s budget — and increase of more than $55 million from 2013 to 2019 — and the increase of violent crime in the city to say that an increased police budget doesn’t reduce crime.
“We spend millions policing and incarcerating the most vulnerable members of our community instead of investing in treatment or housing,” the letter says. “Meanwhile, police officers overwhelmingly patrol Kansas City’s poorest neighborhoods, targeting and abusing already marginalized and primarily Black and brown people. This perpetuates the cycle of violence in our communities.”
The letter says that instead of more policing, the community needs healthcare, housing, jobs and justice.
The letter has four demands for Lucas:
- “Reject the presence of any federal agents occupying our community.
- “Condemn the overreach of the racist, violent Trump administration and stand with the Black and brown people who disproportionately suffer from over-policing in Kansas City.
- “Divest from KCPD by legislating a 50% budget cut.
- “Invest in a community-established People’s Budget for FY 2020-21 by redirecting KCPD funding to resources such as housing, healthcare, sustainable infrastructure and education.”
Billis said the organizations that signed the letter and the Black community want to see investment in “more resources for life-affirming institutions.” If Operation LeGend was intended to stop the violence, he said, it would have included that investment.
The letter asks Lucas to choose to stand either with the police and the “racist, fascist, and violent actions” of the Trump administration or with the marginalized members of his community.
“Your inaction so far indicates you are incapable of fulfilling your mayoral duty to protect the people of Kansas City,” the letter says. “It is time to pick a side.”
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City, the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, KC Tenants, Sunrise Movement Kansas City and Showing Up for Racial Justice Kansas City also signed onto the letter.
Billis said other organizations can sign on on a rolling basis this week.
