Marchers brave snow, cry for local control of KC police and shooting investigations
Marchers determined to "bend the arc of justice" chanted from the steps of the Kansas City Police Department Sunday, echoing over mostly empty downtown streets, swept by chilling, wet snow.
"When black lives are under attack, what do we do!" they shouted.
"Stand up! Fight back!" came their answer.
Dozens took to the streets after some 80 people gathered in support of reforms that they say are needed to build trust in police and strengthen investigations of police shootings, especially against black males.
They want Kansas City to have local control of its police rather than the unusual existing system of a governor-appointed, state oversight panel.
And they want stronger scrutiny from the Jackson County prosecutor's office beginning at the first moments of a crime scene whenever police use lethal force.
"There is no one representing us (in oversight of the police) who has the fire and the passion," said Kiku Brooks, the criminal justice co-chair with the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity (MORE2), one of the organizers of the event.
"We need someone in this room to get in there and turn this around," she said to the crowd that had gathered at the Grand Avenue Temple before the march.
Patience has run out, said the Rev. Vernon Howard, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference-KC, which joined MORE2 and the NAACP-KC as organizers.
"This scourge and disease of police brutality . . . wrapped in racism . . . must stop," he said, "and it must stop now!"
The rally brought family members of victims of police shootings to the event, and they joined the march to the police station as the crowd shouted, "I believe that we will win!"
Narene Stokes, the mother of Ryan Stokes, who died at the age of 24, shot by police on July 28, 2013, shared her grief and her frustrations with the investigation, saying she speaks out wherever she can "to help bring change."
Nasha Green, the cousin of Dantae Franklin, killed at 24, shot by police Aug. 6, 2017, said, "families are hurting."
"There are more good cops and than bad cops," she said. She knows police risk their lives, she said. "But imagine the fear of black men."
Local control is "the first step," Rabbi Doug Alpert with MORE2 said. Local oversight could strengthen police training, he said, help build community trust to be able to support police and establish "infinitely more transparency" in the investigation of police shootings.
Kansas City police officers are trained to de-escalate situations when they encounter someone with a weapon, a spokesperson said in response to previous demonstrations after police shootings.
When officers fire their weapons, Kansas City police detectives investigate the shootings. The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office since 2012 has independently reviewed police shootings to determine if it believes the officers' actions were justified.
Sunday's rally means to find ways to strengthen those investigations and work with police and the prosecutor's office, Alpert said.
"This is not anti-police," he said. "It was stated here that most cops are good cops. If we can create more trust in the community, it will help the police."
The Rev. Rodney Williams, president of the NAACP-KC, summoned a historical quote, famously repeated by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., that the arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
But now, with too much of the white community "in panic," and too much of the black community "in despair and rage," the city is in a "moral crisis," he said.
"There are times in history when we have to help bend the arc."
This story was originally published April 8, 2018 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Marchers brave snow, cry for local control of KC police and shooting investigations."