Overland Park residents considered summoning Proud Boys to Black Lives Matter protest
An Overland Park homeowner with a friend in the far-right, white nationalist Proud Boys offered to call them in to protect the neighborhood from Black Lives Matter protesters last July, The Star Editorial Board has learned. And it’s only since the pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, in which the Proud Boys played a leading role, that officials here fully appreciate what that would have looked like.
The idea — or threat, really — was floated at a meeting between Overland Park police and several homeowners after the July 11 BLM protest near Johnson County Community College.
What a horrible gasoline-on-a-fire idea, to even think of bringing in such a volatile group of thugs. And it should all make us think twice — about who and what we consider frightening, for one thing — that a homeowner and his friends in a “good” neighborhood would be only one degree of separation from such a gang of goons. Here, as across the country, the threat of BLM protesters had been consistently overblown and the threat of white supremacist groups underappreciated. Hopefully, we know better now.
“Basically the conversation is, ‘Listen, if you guys aren’t going to do your job enforcing the law, then we’re going to have to bring people in that will,’” Overland Park Police Chief Frank Donchez told The Star Editorial Board. “And then, the references made to the Proud Boys, and that they would bring in armed people to line the streets of their neighborhood to protect their homes. And I said, listen, that’s a bad idea. That’s a really bad idea. We don’t need armed confrontations.”
Protesters didn’t return to that neighborhood. But for a protest at another nearby neighborhood July 24, police took a firmer hand in keeping the peace — even making four arrests for such things as walking in the street.
Homeowners in the first neighborhood had reason to be irritated. In subsequent emails to Overland Park officials, residents complained of late-evening fireworks and bullhorns, the blocking of traffic and the surrounding of occupied vehicles, and the doxxing of residents including a single mother whose house protesters gathered around.
But bringing in an armed radical group known for its violence as some kind of “protection” could have resulted in disaster.
“I took it as a serious comment,” says Donchez. “I believed that they had the ability to bring people in and line the streets of their neighborhood. I believe they were serious about it, yes.”
“I’m thinking, holy cow, we really dodged a bullet then,” says Overland Park city councilman Paul Lyons, chairman of the Public Safety Committee. Before Jan. 6, “I didn’t realize those guys were as violent as they were. So I look back now retroactively and say we actually dodged a big bullet and we came out OK.
“I was very worried about the potential for violence at that protest on July 24. If they had gone back to the same neighborhood, it might’ve gotten completely out of control, and I was worried that this was going to be on the national news. I was worried that it was going to be a major stain on the city of Overland Park.”
Had BLM protesters gone back to the same neighborhood, and had the resident with a Proud Boys friend from their days serving in the military together made good on his threat, Lyons’ fears would have come true.
Councilwoman Holly Grummert, who’s worked closely with Lyons on improving race relations and racial justice, agreed with him on the severity of the threat last summer: “Anytime you’re bringing in armed residents, yeah, I think that’s a concern. I mean, seriously.”
Before the July 24 protest in a different neighborhood, police met with protesters to go over applicable laws and express support for their right to protest peacefully. And indeed, that protest wasn’t nearly as turbulent, though the four protesters were arrested — perhaps in an effort to prevent a repeat of the combustible July 11 protest.
Lyons also credits positive communication and collaboration, then and now, with the Advocacy and Awareness Group of Johnson County — which he says is the moral of this story. “It all boils down, to me, to communication. If we can find a way to communicate with each other so that everybody knows what everybody’s intentions are, then I think we can avoid things getting out of hand.”
Advocacy and Awareness Group of Johnson County founder Linnaia McKenzie absolutely agrees. Still, although police did share with protesters that counterprotests were possible — and police didn’t want to escalate the situation by spreading unverified threats — McKenzie said it would’ve been nice to know that the Proud Boys’ name had at least been invoked.
May it never be again.