FBI investigates police shooting of OP teen. Would Black families get the same result?

Sheila Albers is white, but she has deep empathy for Black parents around the nation who, like her, have lost children to officer-involved shootings.

“Yes, Steve and I do feel a common cause with Black families around the country,” she says. “We need dramatic changes to the systems that investigate officer-involved shootings.”

What the Albers don’t have in common with most of those Black parents is an all-out federal investigation into the 2018 shooting death of their son, John, at the hands of police — a probe, announced last week, that includes the FBI, U.S. the Department of Justice and its vaunted civil rights division.

The development is a welcome one, as too many questions remain unanswered in the Albers’ case. Still, the question must be asked: How many Black families in the Kansas City area in a similar situation have seen federal probes launched into their cases?

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas said he couldn’t confirm any other excessive force civil rights investigations.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri didn’t respond to our question. But in an earlier Kansas City Star Opinion Live interview, U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison said the civil rights division takes allegations of excessive force seriously.

His commitment to pursuing excessive force cases seemed less than absolute, though.”There are lots of voices calling for changes,” he said. “I’ll also say those are not the only voices being uttered right now.”

Would the Albers have spurred a federal investigation if they were Black?

Sheila Albers ponders the question deeply.

“I think the reason we got this far was because we had access to a highly talented attorney on the front end — in our civil lawsuit,” she says of a case that ended in a settlement. “It’s difficult to sue a city or a police department anyway. But if you don’t have the resources for, or accessibility to, a highly talented attorney, then you’re sort of sunk.

“If you are Black and struggling economically and something like this happens, the chances of you receiving any sort of justice are slim to none. Because you’re at a disadvantage from the get-go.”

Albers says she’s become friends with several Black moms and several white moms who have lost children in officer-involved shootings. She said the white mothers did, indeed, have access to talented attorneys.

“That’s where the system needs to be changed. That situation impacts Black families more than white families, no doubt,” Albers said.

Attorney Mike Kuckelman isn’t sure any disparity is race-based — he said he had no luck getting a federal probe into a fatal police shooting in Sun City, Kansas. But he does say there are few lawyers willing to challenge police and municipalities for alleged civil rights violations.

“These cases are incredibly difficult. The deck is stacked against the lawyer and the family because of the qualified immunity,” says Kuckelman, who won a $3.5 million settlement in the Sun City incident and who just Tuesday filed a new lawsuit in a Sedgwick County case. “You will lose them before you ever get a day in court. I’m not a fan of qualified immunity.”

Qualified immunity is a principle established in case law that protects government officials from lawsuits unless they’re shown to have violated someone’s “clearly established” statutory or constitutional rights.

“We really shouldn’t do that,” Kuckelman says. “We’re entitled to know why a law enforcement officer shoots someone in the family. It’s kind of cruel at times — it’s so difficult to get that kind of information out of law enforcement’s hands.”

“I hate that we even have these questions, because none of this should be,” says Lora McDonald, executive director of the Kansas City racial equity organization MORE2.

Asked whether Blacks might get the same courtesy from the feds as the deserving Albers, attorney Cyndy Short said, “Probably not.” She is co-counsel for Narene Stokes-James, whose son Ryan was shot dead by Kansas City police in July 2013. Their federal lawsuit is hanging by a thread in an appeals court.

While the Albers’ lawsuit has been settled, Short said of Stokes’ lawsuit, “We’re seven years into it. We’ve never had an offer.”

Albers is trying to change what she can. Last year, she and her organization JOCO UNITED championed a bill in the Kansas Legislature to require the release of redacted investigative files in cases of fatal officer-involved shootings when there are no charges brought against the officer. The bill died in the House Judiciary Committee.

State Rep. Fred Patton, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a Topeka Republican, said he’s asked the Best Practices Committee of the Kansas County and District Attorneys Association to evaluate the legislation, and he expects some version of it to be reintroduced next January.

This year has seen much to recommend such a bill, after the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick, Georgia, and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and the high-profile shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

“I actually think I have more support than I did last time,” Albers says of her bill, “and we should have bipartisan support. The political climate lends itself to getting legislation like this passed.”

That would be a monumental achievement, considering the law enforcement organizations that were allied against the measure earlier this year.

An even bigger accomplishment would be leveling the playing field for Black families seeking transparency, truth and accountability.

This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 5:00 AM.