Many police departments now find themselves reeling under waves of outrage against excessive violence against demonstrators, including the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and choke holds.
KCPD has taken a rightful place among those departments. During the local protest demonstrations, we saw KCPD officers overreact on at least three occasions last weekend:
— On Saturday, May 30, hundreds of peaceful protesters who had gathered at Mill Creek Park were laced with tear gas and pepper spray and intimidated with “flash-bang grenades.” Our old-school police chief, Rick Smith, rationalized the attack, calling the gathering “an unlawful assembly,” which is utter balderdash.
— The same day, police gassed two protesters on the Plaza after one of them stepped off the curb and into the street. Moments earlier, the man had yelled, “If you ain’t got the balls to protect the streets and protect and serve like you was paid to do, turn in your damn badge.” Video of the incident, which Smith described as an “extraction” arrest, has been viewed by millions of people.
— The most serious injury was inflicted on 32-year-old Sean Stearns, Kansas City, who took a rubber bullet, or something like it, in the eye at the May 30 demonstrations. With his girlfriend, Sydney Ragsdale, he had taken shelter behind a Mill Creek Park tree when he was struck. He has lost most of the vision in the eye, and a doctor told him he could lose sight in it altogether.
(Later, I read that a 38-year-old man suffered a badly broken leg in the May 30 demonstrations when he was struck by a tear-gas cannister fired by police.)
Stearns and girlfriend Sydney Ragsdale before May 30 demonstrations
…after
**
Against that backdrop, it was very encouraging to read that Mayor Quinton Lucas, at a large demonstration yesterday outside City Hall, signed onto a list of demands to reform the police department, including local control.
Leading the newfound push for local control are three significant organizations: the Urban League of Kansas City, the local branch of the NAACP and MORE2, that is, the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity.
On Wednesday, those three groups issued an extraordinary, joint statement calling for Smith’s ouster and also taking control of the department away from the governor’s office and putting it in the hands of the mayor, the City Council and the city manager.
Here are two key points in the statement:
:: “The Board of Police Commissioners behaves as if they were appointed by the Governor to protect and serve the police chief and police officers rather than to ensure that the department is committed to fair and impartial public safety strategies, dedicated to the principles of fairness, equity and accountability and working actively to build bridges that lead to substantial change. Approximately 70% of the City’s operating budget is allocated to public safety with over $250 million dedicated to the police department, yet the City of KCMO has no authority over KCPD decisions, policies, practices, and procedures.”
:: “Recent news reports detailing police-board-approved, multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlements for police involved shootings, homicides, and excessive force incidents along with the recent uptick in police involved shootings and homicides of African American men have heightened the level of our distrust in Chief Smith. We have no confidence in his ability to lead this department in a manner that respects and values the humanity of all Kansas Citians, irrespective of race, ethnicity, and socio- economic status.”
“No confidence.” That says it all, does it not?
**
As I have written several times before, wresting control of the police department from Jefferson City will be a steep climb. My understanding is it could be done in one of three ways:
:: A successful, statewide initiative petition followed by voter approval (again, statewide).
Sinquefield
:: The Missouri General Assembly passes a bill, signed by the governor, authorizing an election to change state law to give control of the police department to the city.
:: The General Assembly passes a bill, and the governor signs it into law, authorizing local control in Kansas City.
Any of those options would be very challenging. The General Assembly is Republican and rural dominated, and most of the senators and representatives don’t look kindly on measures giving St. Louis or Kansas City more power at the expense of the state. I think the current governor, Mike Parson, would not have a favorable view of such a change, either.
An initiative petition would be a massive undertaking. It would require procuring the signatures of 5 percent of registered votes in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. That means paying a small army of people to collect signatures, which, in turn, requires a big benefactor.
In St. Louis, a powerful, conservative activist and political contributor, Rex Sinquefield, largely financed a successful petition drive in 2011 and early 2012, and that resulted in voters statewide approving local control of the St. Louis Police Department in November 2012.
I doubt that Sinquefield would be willing to make that kind of investment on the western side of the state, and I can’t think of anyone else who might be willing to step up and fund a statewide petition drive. (James B. Nutter Sr., mortgage banker and big-time contributor to Democratic politicians, might have done it, but unfortunately he died three years ago.)
Nevertheless, with the events of the last two weeks, I am much more optimistic than I have ever been about the prospect of local control of KCPD.
**
In the shorter term, I think Smith’s time as chief can now be numbered in months, not years. I believe he will be out by year’s end.
Reforms to KCPD will be coming soon, but whatever they are, they will not be sufficient to stop the push for local control or Smith’s ouster. I doubt he will have the stomach to go on. He’s had a long career, a hefty pension awaits.
And even if he should want to go on, things have changed so much in the last couple of weeks that a majority of the five-member police board may now be thinking about the wisdom of a change at the top. Under state law, a Missouri police chief can only be fired “for cause,” which sets a high bar. Nevertheless, if a majority of the police board was bent on making a change, it would be uncomfortable for Smith to try to stay.
Here’s how change at the top could occur…
The board consists of the mayor and four people appointed by the governor. The four appointed members are private investor and multi-millionaire Don Wagner; retired lawyer Cathy Dean; Mark Tolbert, pastor of an African-American church; and lawyer Nathan Garrett.
As board officers, Wagner (president), Tolbert (vice president) and Dean (treasurer) would probably hold sway in regard to Smith’s future, along with Lucas.
Lucas has not said directly if he supports Smith, but by signing on to the NAACP/MORE2/Urban League demands, he has effectively said he does not support him.
There’s one solid vote against Smith.
Dean
Of the other board members, I have only met Cathy Dean, and it was totally unrelated to her board service. Nevertheless, she strikes me as someone who would be very concerned about this situation and receptive to calls for major reform.
That could be another vote against Smith.
It’s almost a given that Tolbert will side with the groups demanding that Smith leave.
If Dean was of like mind, that would be three votes, a majority.
Then, there’s Wagner, board president. He is rich (made a fortune in the steel-tank business), elderly and probably in his waning years of civic service. I don’t see why he would feel beholden to either Smith or even Gov. Mike Parson. He might envision himself — or come to envision himself — as the man who presided over a much-needed and critical change of direction at the police department.
Readers, it’s almost a done deal: Rick Smith is on the way out.
Editor’s note: I amended the sections pertaining to local control and firing the police chief after learning more about state law pertaining to both issues.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
We also saw vandalism, piles of bricks and rocks stashed around the Plaza area by protesters and literally hundreds of bottles of frozen water thrown at the police.
In Minneapolis dozens are retiring or resigning and in Buffalo an entire 57 man squad of the Emergency Response team resigned. As a result, vigilante groups are popping up to step into the void.
KCK has had great difficulty recruiting new officers and many are fed up with mark Dupree’s idiotic policies that have thrown vicious felons back into the streets instead of adequately prosecuting them.
My advice: buy guns and ammo because there are not going to be enough cops to protect you.
I haven’t seen anything about Minneapolis police officers resigning.
In Buffalo, the members of the Emergency Response team resigned only from that team, not the force. You really think those guys are going to give up their good-paying, great-benefit jobs because of a spot of trouble?
My advice: You and I and people our age have to be careful about getting in the way of cops marching forward with batons and face shields; we could get knocked down and badly injured. That’s what happened to 75-year-old Martin Gugino outside Buffalo City Hall on Thursday.
I’m too old for the streets; I’ll be in my house.
85% KCPD pension. We pay for it. No KC officer going to give up that bequest!
Perhaps John would like to discuss the officer in Minneapolis who is charged with George Floyd’s murder and the following things that have been found out about him since:
1. He has a second home in Florida. He has been shown he registered to vote in both Florida and Minnesota. He recently voted in a Florida election claiming Florida was his permanent address. Can you say voter fraud? Republicans (and he is registered as one) seem to be experts at it (remember North Carolina in 2018).
2. Now that this officer has claimed Florida as his permanent residence, now it is being to looked into if he has committed tax fraud by not paying Minnesota state income tax.
3. His wife filed for divorce the day after the officer was charged. My sister works in a law office in large midwestern state capital and has constantly said you would not believe the number of domestic abuse cases involving police officers.
I was a union steward and vice-regional chair in the public sector. We wanted people like this out of the union and out of the government. They made all of our members and the agency look bad. Police unions protect to the bitter end people who foul up. The tide is turning and accountability is coming.
Also on the union front, I should point out that the president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO has called for the resignation of Bob Kroll, the president of the Minneapolis Police Union.
https://www.mnaflcio.org/updates/minnesota-afl-cio-calls-minneapolis-police-union-president-bob-kroll%E2%80%99s-immediate-resignation
Since you asked, there are a few more details that you left out. He has been in trouble repeatedly before and Amy Klobuchar is in hot water because she’s the one who gave him a pass. In addition to the murder charge against Chauvin, the other three officers, one of Asian decent, one black and one Hispanic, have also been charged. And so given the fact that he’s charged with 2nd degree murder with a previous record of abuse I’m puzzled by your concern with his voting record. Where does that fit in, evidence that …what?
Personally, I think Fitz nailed it when he said we’re too old to be pissing anyone off. For us, a five-year old swinging level could be life threatening.
John,
I am concerned about his voting record because as a law enforcement officer I expect the individual to follow the the law. They expect the rest of us to, so why are they any different? Lead by example. That he did it says to me that felt he was above the law and could make his own rules.
As for Amy Klobuchar, I agree. They have been letting police get by with this for too long. There was a cop in Fort Lauderdale finally suspended last week after another complaint. This officer has had 79 complaints filed against him in just 3 1/2 years on the force. Why the delay in taking action?
There is a code of silence among police officers. The two rookies who have now been charged are now apparently talking. As I said before, the good cops should want the bad ones out.
John,
The fox news rhetoric of “protesters” stashing weapons is not fair or correct. From what I have read the “stashes” were placed by groups wanting to force violence on peaceful demonstrations, after most of them were arrested, some with the help of peaceful demonstrators, the violence subsided. Some of the violent groups were nazis with the goal of a race war.
Fitz,
If you can there is quite a discussion on Nextdoor.com about deed restrictions in Prairie Village. This stems from a BLM march on Wednesday of this coming week.
Karl, not sure why you think it’s unfair. I got that from local news channels reporting on the stockpilles, not Fox. Otherwise, I think your comments about the protests are spot on. From what I’ve seen, the mostly peaceful portions of the demonstrators were also mostly black. Later in the evening the violence seemed to come from predominantly white protesters throwing rocks, frozen bottles of water, etc. at the police. Much of that has been blamed on Antifa, but you are correct in that white supremacists have also been identified contributing to the havoc. I don’t think we disagree here.
Bill — I haven’t read anything about Derek Chauvin claiming Florida as his permanent address, and I don’t know how he could pull that off, without living in Florida 183 days a year. (That’s what it takes in FLA.)
I did see that his wife had filed for divorce, and I’m glad we won’t be seeing him walking into the courthouse with “the devoted wife” holding his hand in a show of support.
And I don’t expect to see Kroll resigning anytime soon…
The New York Times had an excellent story yesterday about the power of police unions and how we can expect to see those unions digging in harder than ever now. Meaningful reforms are going to be hard to come by.
A Florida lawyer running for office did the legwork and found that the officer had voted in Florida.
Here is a story about it:
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ne-candidate-alleges-voter-fraud-derek-chauvin-20200605-6hdffv6huvglrmgdpfc5krthym-story.html
From the article:
“A search of Chauvin’s voter status in Florida shows he registered to vote Republican in Orange County at his Windermere-area address in January 2016. His registration is active. Election records show he voted in the 2016 and 2018 general elections.”
Voter fraud is a third degree felony in Florida.
I doubt he came up with this on his own. It makes you wonder if there are others in the department doing the same thing.
Is the KC police union as powerful as they are in some other cities? I read this fascinating article in the N.Y. Times that really opened my eyes to the power of police unions. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/police-unions-minneapolis-kroll.html
That’s the same story I linked to in my comment above yours, Allison. And, to answer your question, I’m not exactly sure how powerful the FOP is here, but it must be pretty strong. Glenn Rice, in his story about the demonstration outside City Hall on Friday, wrote this: “KCPD’s labor agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police, in essence, allows officers involved in fatal shootings to go home for several days before they are interviewed by investigators.”
I think that’s not uncommon. Union officials contend that police involved in shootings need time to settle down emotionally and psychologically. Critics say it just gives them time to get their stories straight before they’re interviewed.
Jim,
You are so spot-on, logical, and motivational. I’m continuing to learn from you, rather than take a “knee jerk” reaction out of sheer frustration and disgust. Thank you for aiding in my growth.
Thanks, Rita…Words like those are extremely encouraging to any writer. I really appreciate it. I hope to see you in the neighborhood.
85% KCPD pension. We pay for it. No KC officer going to give up that bequest.
There might be one more (albeit unlikely) possibility for gaining local control of the police department. Again, I recognize that this is not really a feasible solution, and I haven’t actually been able to find anything that says it in writing, but Jolie Justus noted during the only mayoral forum I was able to be in town and watch in person that control of the department reverts to the City if the municipal population grows above 700,000.
I don’t know where she got this, and I would certainly agree with an interpretation of the statement as a sort of cop-out (no pun intended) on the part of Justus during the mayoral debates. I know you were a big Jolie supporter, as well as a much better researcher than I. Would you have any idea where she might have derived this statement? Of course, the Former Councilwoman was and is an excellent legal mind, and she certainly might have decided to adopt what she saw as some sort of loophole in the state law to incorporate in her answers during the campaign.
Not that this is a realistic proposal. If in fact, we somehow accelerate population to that point without having accumulated the political capital to control our own municipal appropriations, I would be quite worried for our community. I’m just a little confused that no one fact-checked Justus on this claim that I don’t see mentioned any place else.
That’s an interesting subject, Ethan. I don’t think the 700,000 is correct, but I’ll check with a former city attorney I know about this.
I did a Google search of Missouri statutes on the subject of control of the St. Louis and KC police departments, and, as you can imagine, it’s pretty thick. In addition, I think what I found is outdated because the statute provisions I found pre-dated the 2012 voter approval of Proposition A, which gave control of SLPD to the city.
I will let you know by email what I find out.
In any event, even if there is some magic to the 700,000 figure, we won’t get there for another 50 to 100 years!