Black Lives Matter

After a closed-door session Monday, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners announced that it never voted to fire Smith and that he “remains in good standing” with the board.

In the spring of 2020, Black Lives Matter protesters called for the Kansas City Police Department to be released from state oversight. Civil rights groups are still talking about that, but there's little momentum.

DeValkenaere is the first Kansas City law enforcement officer to be convicted for the fatal shooting of a Black man. Following the conviction, the department suspended DeValkenaere without pay.

In a 38-page response to a complaint filed requesting that the Missouri Supreme Court suspend their law licenses, Mark and Patricia McCloskey say violent riots and protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis justified their actions.

Prosecutors contend that once a high-speed car chase ended, there were no urgent circumstances requiring Eric DeValkenaere and his partner to trespass on private property with guns drawn without first obtaining a search warrant.

For the first time ever, a Kansas City police officer is standing trial in a fatal shooting. A grand jury indicted Eric J. DeValkenaere in the killing of a Black man in his own backyard last year. Plus, after months of courtroom delays, a judge will hear evidence in the innocence petition of Kevin Strickland.

DeValkenaere’s indictment by a Jackson County grand jury in June 2020 came amid heightened scrutiny of police practices across the United States following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Despite a hefty reward and an "Unsolved Mysteries" episode about his death, there is still no closure for Alonzo Brooks’ family.

In a 2016 preseason game against the Green Bay Packers, the then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback protested during the national anthem for the first time.

Missouri’s chief disciplinary counsel is asking the state Supreme Court to suspend the law licenses of a St. Louis couple that pleaded guilty to waving guns at unarmed Black Lives Matter protesters. Also, why Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wants local elections to become partisan.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey made national headlines in June 2020 when they confronted a group of mostly Black protesters who entered their gated community en route to demonstrate in front of the nearby home of a former St. Louis mayor.

This Lawrence-based artist left China in 1998 for the freedom to make art her own way. But she says the current political moment in America requires something different: joining with others.