Lucas: No immediate plans to remove protesters but Kansas City Council will discuss

Mayor Quinton Lucas said on Monday there are no immediate plans to have protesters who have been camped out on the front lawn of City Hall removed.

A spokeswoman for Lucas said members of the City Council on Thursday will discuss possible options.

“There are no imminent plans to require the individuals outside of City Hall to vacate the premises,” said Morgan Said, a spokeswoman for Lucas. “The City Council will engage in further discussion about steps forward during Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting.”

For the past four days, protesters have deemed their occupation site, “the people’s city,” in response to a Kansas City police officer who put his knee on a pregnant woman’s back with her belly on the ground. The episode was captured on video.

Police said the woman had interfered with the arrest of a suspect on Sept. 30. Deja Stallings, 25, was issued a municipal citation for hindering the arrest of another, according to court records.

The group is seeking the resignation or termination of Police Chief Rick Smith and the officer who put his knee on Stallings’ back.

“It is important at this time that we are not just reactive to this but proactive and making sure that things like this don’t continue to happen in our city,” Rachel Hudson, the group’s spokeswoman, said Monday afternoon.

Protesters also are demanding that the city divest 50% from the police department’s annual budget and redirect those funds to health care, housing, mental health programs and educational services that target Kansas City’s Black community.

“We are not leaving until our message is heard and until we get justice for the brutality that Deja and so many others have succumb to in Kansas City,” Hudson said. “We are modeling to what we want to happen in Kansas City. Mayor Lucas has been made aware of our demands.”

Hudson said Lucas visited the encampment on Saturday but refused to answer any of their questions about a vote to terminate Smith.

“Instead he was debating on whether us pitching tents was considered peaceful protest,” she said.

Hudson said at least 200 persons have either visited or have participated in the encampment.

Tables positioned along the entrance of city hall are lined with food, water, sanitation supplies, books, clothing and other items.

Protest signs and placards leading up to the entrance of city hall, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, are plastered with signs: “Remove Chief Smith,” “Black Lives Matter,” and “Who Killed Donnie Sanders.”

Sanders was shot by Kansas City police in March. The 47-year-old was unarmed. No one has been arrested.

For months this summer, protests ignited by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis prompted Kansas City demonstrators to call for justice for Sanders and other men shot by Kansas City police. Days of protests filled Kansas City’s streets with marchers demanding an end to police brutality and tear gas deployed by police.

“Anyone who has seen the video of the brutality towards Deja, it was absolutely horrifying,” Hudson said. “As a Black woman who become pregnant one day, I could never conceived of being thrown to the ground in that manner.”

This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 4:57 PM.