ACLU says ‘failure to obey’ arrests in Kansas City protests were unconstitutional
The American Civil Liberties Union sued Kansas City this week on behalf of three women who were arrested by Kansas City police during protests earlier this summer near the Country Club Plaza.
The ACLU accuses the city of enforcing unconstitutional ordinances.
The lawsuit chronicles the experiences of three protesters — Sariah Moody, Grace Reading and Emily Cady — who were among some 200 nonviolent protesters accused of violating Kansas City’s “failure to obey” ordinances during demonstrations against police brutality.
“These vague ordinances are being used in a discriminatory manner to target protesters who are critical of Kansas City law enforcement,” Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri, said in a written statement. “All people must be able to exercise their First Amendment rights to demand accountability for the police without facing arbitrary threats of arrest.”
A request for comment to Kansas City’s law department went unreturned on Friday. A spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department, which is not named as a defendant but whose actions are described in the ACLU lawsuit, declined to comment.
Kansas City has an ordinance that generally prohibits people from interfering with the city’s public safety personnel. The ACLU argues that it lacks any provision that an offender intends to interfere with public safety and gives police unfettered ability to arrest demonstrators.
That’s what the lawsuit said happened to Moody, who attended the protests with her daughter on May 30 and 31. Moody, according to the lawsuit, was sitting off the curb along J.C. Nichols Parkway to give herself distance from other protesters and avoid the risk of contracting the coronavirus. The parkway was closed to traffic that day.
Moody, according to the lawsuit, was approached by police officers who picked her up off the ground and zip-tied her wrists together tightly enough that her hands went numb.
Reading said she attended the June 2 protest near the Plaza and was on J.C. Nichols Parkway when a line of 50 police officers approached protesters and ordered them to step back, even though the lawsuit said that the part of the roadway was closed to traffic. Reading was arrested and booked.
Cady was arrested at Washington and 39th streets on June 1 after being surrounded by police officers and ordered to lay on the ground.
The ACLU says the ordinances for which each of the women, along with hundreds of other protesters, were charged are too broad the First and Fourteenth Amendments guaranteeing free speech and due process.
The Kansas City municipal prosecutor has dropped charges against some 200 nonviolent protesters.
The Stinson law firm is also representing the protesters, including veteran litigator John Aisenbrey.
