Groups renew calls for DOJ probe of Kansas City police after Star report on racism
Civil rights leaders on Wednesday renewed their calls for a Justice Department probe into the Kansas City Police Department following a Star investigation of racism in the department.
During a news conference, clergy and civil rights leaders said they would share The Star’s investigation, which was based in part on interviews with 25 current and former Black officers, with the Justice Department.
“The Department of Justice is the only entity (that) can do anything right now,” said Lora McDonald, executive director of MORE2, a local social justice organization. “We need them to come inside and take action and do a pattern-and-practice investigation of all these things that were uncovered by The Kansas City Star and that we’ve been hearing for years.”
Those same groups called for a DOJ investigation last year, pointing to what they described as “disturbing patterns” of officer misconduct and violent policing that targets minorities.
The Justice Department declined to comment Wednesday.
On Sunday, The Star published a yearlong investigation that found Black officers in KCPD face discrimination, racist abuse and unfair discipline from supervisors. They recounted times when white colleagues called them racial slurs with impunity and made insulting comments about eating fried chicken, among other things.
Just 11.6% of officers are Black in a city that is 28% Black.
Gwen Grant, CEO and president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said the Board of Police Commissioners, which oversees the force, should have immediately issued a response to The Star’s investigation. She called the board’s silence “deafening” and “heartbreaking”
“It is unfortunate that since that report was published, the Board of Police Commissioners has been radio silent,” she said.
The police board did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
McDonald added that when her organization says Black Lives Matter, that includes Black officers, such as Sgt. Herb Robinson, who told The Star he was racially-profiled by two colleagues last year. Robinson said it was one of the worst incidents in his career, and compared it to the time he was shot in the line of duty.
She called the officers who spoke out about the “injustices” in their police department brave.
“I don’t think a person can understand, unless they have been a whistleblower in a racist circumstance, the terror that these gentleman put themselves in to go on record,” McDonald said.
The Rev. Scott Myers of the Presbyterian Urban and Immigrant Ministry Network said a knee needs to be taken “off the necks of Black and brown police officers.” He called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to order an investigation into the police force.
“If not now, when?” he asked.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 3:42 PM.
