KC civil rights leaders respond after learning of DeValkenaere’s license | Opinion
Moments after a recent press conference on police accountability in Kansas City concluded in a meeting room inside the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, I pulled three civil rights leaders aside.
They were: Gwen Grant, CEO and president of the Urban League , the Rev. Vernon P. Howard Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City and Nimrod Chapel, president of the Missouri chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
From each of them, I wanted to get their respective thoughts about ex-Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere finally surrendering his peace officer license nearly six years after the former lawman and convicted killer fatally shot Cameron Lamb, a 26-year-old African American father of three.
The three major representatives of Kansas City’s Black community were surprised to hear the news. No one had told them, let alone informed the community they represent.
When I probed the matter last spring, I was told by a Missouri Department of Public Safety official that DeValkenaere’s license was inactive, not revoked or suspended. Last fall, KCUR reported that DeValkenaere surrendered his license sometime between last April and June 30.
Revocation of his license would have been automatic in a state like Illinois after DeValkenaere was found guilty in 2021 of second-degree manslaughter and armed criminal action in Lamb’s unfortunate and untimely death. In Missouri, no such law exists — but there should be one that addresses this very serious public safety matter.
Below are the brief remarks each civil rights leader made regarding DeValkenaere’s decertification.
Nimrod Chapel: “The surrender of the peace officer’s license by Eric DeValkenaere says volumes, not only for our community that we can be safe and know that he will no longer be a threat to us, but also for other peace officers so that they can do the honorable thing. If you’ve committed a transgression against the people, the least you can do is own up with your own personal accountability. That’s what DeValkenaere did and it’s about time.”
The Rev. Vernon P. Howard Jr.: “What does that do for Cameron Lamb’s offspring? What does that do for the wealth that Cameron Lamb could be earning? That could be transferred to his children so that they can live a better quality of life? What does that say about the system? We should have done that a long time ago.”
Gwen Grant: “I think it’s outstanding. DeValkenaere should never be allowed to carry a gun or a badge ever. In life. He took a human life and he should pay the consequences for that.”
I recently wrote that Missouri lawmakers should make the decertification process of a police officer convicted of a violent crime an automatic one. There is no reason to keep the community waiting, and worse yet, uninformed.
