Kansas City, like many cities across the world, saw a public outcry to what many felt was an injustice in the Ferguson, Mo., grand jury decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown.
As anticipated, the decision set off immediate violence in the St. Louis suburb. The ruling reverberated with demonstrations and protests from New York to San Diego, and as far away as Sydney, Australia.
Here in Kansas City, the response was quick and vocal, but mostly peaceful.
Not very far below the surface, however, tensions are simmering about how local law enforcement operate in communities.
Help from the top down
It may be that Kansas City Mayor Sly James set the tone for Kansas City with a statement he released after the decision.
In it, the Mayor urged the community to remain peaceful.
“Rather than fighting with our fists, let’s fight to eliminate the conditions that led to this young man’s death,” he wrote. And in general, that’s how Kansas City responded.
Community organizer Damon Daniel believes the response emanated from the highest levels of the police department. Daniel is with CCO, a Kansas City group of community organizers.
“The police department and Chief (Darrell) Forté made themselves available. (They’ve) been building community relationships for quite some time,” Daniel said.
Daniel went to Ferguson after the decision and saw first-hand the violent protests. Racial profiling is still a problem in Kansas City, he says, but he believes the police department’s proactive response before Ferguson is what made the difference here.
Kansas City police reported a handful of arrests for blocking traffic and one assault of a police horse on the Country Club Plaza the night violence erupted in Ferguson, but otherwise local reaction was calm. On Dec.7, about 100 protestors laid down head to head on the floor of the Crown Center shopping mall in what they called a “die in.” Police reported a few detentions but protestors cooperated and no arrests were made.
Racial tension still exists
But Daniel and others say Kansas City shouldn’t be lulled into feeling complacent — building trust is still a work in progress.
Rakeem Golden, president of the Multi-Cultural Student Organizations Council at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, joined local civil rights veterans in a march to the federal courthouse the day after the decision came down. He agrees with Daniel that Kansas City is different than Ferguson, but that we gloss over our race problem — he calls it “the elephant in the room.”
When Golden first arrived in Kansas City, he says students and others in the city told him not to go beyond a certain border — east of Troost.
“I said 'so why don't you want to go past Troost?'"Rakeem says. "We have to figure out what’s the difference between the west side of Troost and the east side of Troost."
One difference is that there is a disproportionate number of crimes and a disproportionately black population east of Troost.
In the wake of Ferguson, Americans across the country are sharing personal stories about unwarranted suspicion and hostility from police.
That sentiment was obvious at a meeting at St. Andrews United Methodist Church at 46th and Benton the night following the Ferguson grand jury decision. The message came through loud and clear — many in minority in Kansas City's communities are frustrated with police relations.
Reverend Stephan Gordon says it’s been an issue for way too long.
“Kansas City,” he warned the large crowd at St. Andrews, “we’re headed to be a Ferguson.”
Kansas City police chief Forté, in accepting an award from the Urban League Dec.4, made an unusual statement for law enforcement — encouraging people to keep marching and “making their voices heard.”
Ken Novak, a professor of criminal justice at UMKC, says this kind of relationship-building goes a long way toward dissipating hostility in times when frustration might boil over.
“It’s not perfect,” Novak says. “But it (helps create) a mutually respectful relationship between public and police ... a sense of policing with the community not on the community.”
The most important thing, he says, is that every cop on the street understand the policies and communities feel the laws are being fairly and equally applied.
