After about 150 masked members of the Patriot Front, a white nationalist hate group, marched through downtown Kansas City last Saturday, Mayor Quinton Lucas took to social media.
"While the First Amendment provides the right to bring any message to Kansas City," he wrote, "we know that our diversity, our welcoming community, and our respect for the rights of all reject whatever hate and cowardice come our way."
Kansas City Police said they didn't have any advance warning of the march. However, officers didn’t make any arrests, saying they wanted the white supremacist group to leave quickly. Although Patriot Front has a significant number of members in Missouri, police say the marchers were all from out of town.
KCPD Deputy Chief Joe Mabin said Tuesday that police saw social media reports about counter-protests and they had safety concerns.
"Therefore, in an attempt to deescalate the situation, it was best that the members of the group left the area," Mabin said. "Other than riding in the back of a U-Haul, we were unaware of any other laws that they violated.”
For many in the comments on Bluesky and Instagram, the city's response wasn't strong enough. But Lucas argues that a lengthy condemnation of the "absolute fools and cowards" wouldn't have been productive.
"Of course I abhor white supremacy," he told KCUR's Up To Date. "But what I'm actually really working on, and why I think I was elected to this position, was to create better life outcomes for a whole lot of people in this city, including Black Kansas Citians. And that continues to be where my focus is."
Lucas recalled a lesson he learned from his mother as a child.
"You fight to change your world, your family, your outlook, and frankly, you center on uplift of Black people and focus on them, rather than spending my whole day captured by white hate," he said.
"So no, I'm not going to spend my life platforming white supremacists. I'm not going to spend my whole weekend platforming white hate."
Lucas joined KCUR's Up To Date to discuss the rally, as well as the Kansas City Royals' search for a new stadium location, his recent trip to Qatar, and improving public transit.
KCUR's Peggy Lowe contributed reporting to this story.
