The Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City is the latest local civil rights group to demand the resignation of Police Chief Rick Smith and to denounce the deployment of 100 federal agents to help solve violent crime in Kansas City.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was sending over 100 agents from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to work with state and local law enforcement agencies in Kansas City.

“This is a policy which further militarizes our community and escalates the already elevated possibility of increased bloodshed in our streets,” said the Rev. Vernon Howard, SCLC president. “Bloodshed that too often ends in the loss of more Black life.”

“We refuse to be political pawns in the federal, state or local government’s military-style approach to law enforcement upon Black and brown people,”Howard said during a press conference Friday on the steps of Kansas City police headquarters.

SCLC leaders said the effort would further erode the already fractured relationship between police and the community. They also said the initiative was an affront to local law enforcement and elected leaders who were not notified in advance of the White House announcement.

“Just to appease those who desire to win elections by proving they are tough on our community,” he said. “We denounce policies, we reject policy makers and we oppose those who execute policy which ignores the need to build educational and economic capacity in our people rather than building prisons and jails.”

Howard said the funding could have instead been used to help the homeless, provide health care to those battling the coronavirus and provide help to those addicted to drugs.

The crime-fighting initiative, called “Operation Legend,” is named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot while he slept around 2:30 a.m. on June 29 at The Citadel Apartments on Bushman Road. Federal agents will investigate unsolved homicides and non-fatal shootings but will not be involved in daily policing or patrolling streets.

Prior to the event, protesters ripped away yellow police tape draped along the entrance of police headquarters. They also hung a large Black Lives Matter banner around the base of the police memorial statue near the front steps. The group has advocated against police brutality and systemic racism.

In recent weeks, Smith has said he has no intention of resigning and has pledged to continue to work with clergy, civic and civil rights groups to stem the surge of gun violence and homicides in Kansas City.

The Kansas City police department could not be reached for comment late Friday afternoon.

Howard said if Smith does not resign, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners should have Smith dismissed.

A coalition of civil rights groups previously called for Smith’s resignation, citing a lack of confidence in his handling of fatal police shootings of Black men and allegations of excessive use of force by the department.

That group consisted of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, the NAACP’s Kansas City branch and the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, or MORE2.

Gwendolyn Grant, CEO and president of the Urban League, also denounced the plan to send federal agents to Kansas City.

“Bringing in the federal militia to further police our urban community will do nothing more than exacerbate an already volatile situation,” Grant said. “We have a brutal police department led by a police chief who has no respect for the humanity of Black people.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 6:13 PM.