On Oct. 6, an off-duty Kansas City firefighter was shot and killed at an Independence gas station following an altercation inside the store. 

Witness reports state that a customer, Ja’Von Taylor, “disrespected”  the gas station’s cashier, which the off-duty firefighter, Anthony Santi, overheard. Santi then attempted to intervene and the altercation escalated.

The witness continued, stating that Taylor ran outside and grabbed a firearm from his vehicle, which prompted a fight between Santi and Taylor over the weapon. Santi managed to get Taylor in a headlock. A released video shows a woman associated with Taylor holding the weapon, repeatedly asking Santi to let go of Taylor. The woman then shot Santi in the back, causing him to collapse and be taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. 

The witness, who was cited to have had medical training, reported that Taylor at the time was “totally defenseless…couldn’t talk or breathe and was turning purple.” The witness also believed that they heard Santi say “I’m killing you” to Taylor during the altercation.

The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office released a statement on Oct. 21, explaining why they will not be pressing charges against the woman who shot Santi. According to the Office, “the shooting female fired a single shot in defense of the man who was being strangled.” They acknowledge that the woman was in compliance with Missouri’s Stand Your Ground law, which grants a person the right to use deadly force to prevent serious injury or death to themselves or others.

After the initial decision was released, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office stated that they have received threats and harassment from numerous sources. One such threat included an anonymous call towards prosecutor Jean Baker: “We’re going to burn your f***ing house. We’re f***ing coming for you.”

Although the woman was not charged, Taylor was federally charged for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

One student at William Jewell College familiar with the area remarked that the event was unfortunate.

“This hits really close to home since my family lives down there,” the student, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “I am glad though that the woman was not charged because I feel like I would have done the same thing in that situation. I couldn’t imagine me or my family going to the gas station and being faced with that. I’m definitely sad that the firefighter lost his life, but I am also sad that all of this happened this way. Stand Your Ground and self-defense laws exist for a reason – for things like this, based on what the witness was saying.”

On Nov. 8, Missouri voters will have the opportunity to vote “yes” or “no” on this year’s midterm election ballot in response to a proposed amendment to the Missouri constitution. 

A vote “yes” on the proposal would effectively amend Section 21, Article X of the Missouri Constitution and allow the Missouri General Assembly to increase the minimum funding required for police forces that are established by a state board of police commissioners. The amendment would create an exception to Section 21, which otherwise forbids funding increases of services unless the state specifically pays for that increase. Because the Kansas City Police Department is currently the only state-controlled police force in Missouri, the proposed amendment would only affect the KCPD and Kansas City for the time being. The primary outcome would be an increase in the KCPD’s minimum funding by 2027 without reimbursement to the city. A vote “no” would veto this proposal. 

Advocates of Amendment 4 suggest that this bill would prevent further attempts to defund the KCPD, as explained by Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer (R-34) who sponsored the measure.

“This [amendment] ensures the brave men and women in the KCPD have the resources they need to keep our city safe,” Sen. Luetkemeyer said.

Other advocates for the amendment express concern that our local officials are not equipped to make these decisions themselves: “The actions of the mayor and city council last year raised tremendous alarm regarding the stability of funding for something as important as the Kansas City Police Department,” Rep. Doug Richey (R-39) said.

However, critics of Amendment 4 argue that the proposal would be an overreach of government power, noting that every other city in the state maintains lo CXCV cal control.

“It just makes absolutely no sense that the state legislature would dictate how our local government should allocate its resources – all for the protection of the police in response to a false narrative of defunding,” Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas weighed in on the matter earlier this year, expressing a similar sentiment: “I do not support anything that takes away our ability to work with our local police department and neighborhood leaders in terms of how we get to better solutions for violent crime.”

While the common talking points appear to mirror a two-sided debate between Republican and Democratic parties, some argue that the issue should be a place of common ground between parties.

“This is not a Black or white issue,” Vernon Percy Howard Jr., adjunct professor of at William Jewell College, said. “This is an American issue, symptomatic of a democracy in crisis and under siege, where state overreach is rampant in the stripping of voting and governance power from the people.” 

Howard – a Jewell graduate (‘86), pastor at St. Mark’s Church in Kansas City and President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City – continues: “[Amendment 4] further erodes democratic principles by stripping from local communities the voice and power to determine their own policies and budgets which impact the well-being of their children, families and communities…Don’t local communities reserve the right to self-governance on key local issues?”

In 2020, Howard was also the recipient of Jewell’s Invictus Social Justice Award and the Harold L. Holliday Civil Rights Award from the Missouri branch of the NAACP for his work in organizing and educating Kansas City communities about civil rights issues and activism. With proposals such as Amendment 4, Howard emphasized that voters should be aware of their historical and local implications.

“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr….called this kind of overreach ‘interposition and nullification,’ citing the early mid-twentieth century movement among states to disrupt and turn back the rights of Blacks to vote and gain access and inclusion within the mainstream of American prosperity,” Howard said. “Critical thinkers and 21st century global leaders own the moral responsibility to remain awake on these issues. Particularly, the Jewell educated scholar, who takes seriously one of the critical questions of our core curriculum, which is, ‘how shall we live?'”

Election Day is on Nov. 8. Registered voters in Clay County can find their polling place here, and check their registration status here. For more voter resources, click on the link here.

​On Sept. 19, the Kansas City Police Department became the subject of a federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The investigation is the result of the alleged long-term mistreatment of women and minorities by the KCPD, specifically in regard to its hiring practices.

​The inquiry came about after the Kansas City Star published several articles describing widespread police harassment against Black citizens and even amongst their fellow officers, causing many Black cops to resign. According to the Star’s reporting, 18 Black officers resigned over a 15-year period, and despite making up 27% of Kansas City’s population, Black individuals currently only make up 12% of the police force.

While ​public trust in the police from white citizens has remained steady, confidence from Black citizens has fluctuated over the past few years, a 2021 Gallup poll reported. They remarked that Black citizen’s confidence in police reached an all-time low in 2020 following nation-wide protests to police violence, and remains slow to recover. 

In a nationwide evaluation of policing practices, KCPD ranked among the lowest of Missouri’s 526 departments. The evaluation, compiled by the nonprofit organization Police Scorecard, reported that KCPD obtained more funding per capita, but consistently used more non-lethal and lethal force per arrest and spent more funds on misconduct settlements than 77%, 73%, 96% and 67% of other Missouri police departments respectively. The evaluation also reported that there was a greater racial disparity in use of deadly force than 62% of other departments.

On Oct. 14, a second bombshell report emerged, published by the Kansas City Defender and accusing the KCPD of failing to take concerns seriously as Kansas City community leaders reported that Black women were being targeted and kidnapped on Prospect Avenue. Just a week prior to the report on Oct. 7, a Black woman escaped captivity in Excelsior Springs, claiming that the suspect who held her in his basement kidnapped her from Prospect Avenue and also murdered several other women. Attempts to bring attention to the alleged kidnappings began in September, but according to the Defender, the KCPD addressed the disappearances as “completely unfounded” with no need for an investigation.

According to the DOJ, their investigation will specifically determine if KCPD promoted employment or hiring “pattern or practice of discrimination based on race” in violation of  the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Civil rights leaders, including  Gwen Grant who is president and CEO of Urban League of Kansas City, remain hopeful that the investigation is “just the beginning of a deeper dive that will also expand this investigation into patterns and practices of excessive and deadly force.”

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas spoke positively of the DOJ’s investigation at a news conference about the issue: “Most of our conversations, not just in Kansas City, but in the state of Missouri, have not looked at how we can make sure that our officers — particularly officers of color and women — can be taken care of, [and] have not looked at how we can become a more diverse department reflective of our city. I think no matter what becomes of this investigation, it’s important for us to take steps and make sure we’re doing right by our officers.”

​The interim Police Chief Joseph Mabin said the department plans to fully cooperate with the investigation.

Protests calling for police reform have swept the country for the past year, sparked by former police officer Derek Chauvin’s killing of George Floyd in May 2020. With Chauvin currently facing trial, and continued instances of police brutality against African Americans, the issue of police brutality has not gone away and reform is beginning to make strides in legislation.

Lobbying for police reform has been prevalent in Missouri since the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. A bill concerning police reform and accountability passed the Missouri Senate and is now making its way to the Missouri House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 60 establishes a ban on police chokeholds, increases the penalty for officers engaging in sexual conduct with detainees to a class E felony, prevents discharged officers from moving to another department to escape accountability for wrongdoings and establishes a program to provide help to officers coping with stress and psychological trauma.

This bill was sponsored by state senator Brian Williams, who in 2018 was the first Black male to be elected to the Missouri Senate in 20 years. Williams hopes that this bill will save Black lives as well as support the police while getting rid of the officers that harm their profession.

SB 60 has now been combined with another police reform bill, Senate Bill 53, that would remove the residency requirement of police officers in Kansas City. Proposed by state senator Tony Luetkemeyer, SB 53 gives police officers the option to live within a 30 mile radius of Kansas City, and requires the officers to be Missouri residents.

Quinton Lucas, mayor of Kansas City expressed his opposition to SB 53, tweeting, “Such a bill is a step back for community-police relations at a time our city cannot afford it. Outside occupying forces lead to more problems, not fewer.” 

Lucas further explained, “There are many things we need to do to stem the rising violent crime in our city – de-escalation, better health services, community investment, youth empowerment. Bills like this fostering greater division between the community and its police ain’t it.”
Despite the opposing argument of Mayor Lucas and Kansas City Police Department’s Chief Rick Smith, the bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support. Senator Luetkemeyer defended the bill, arguing most police already live outside of high-crime areas and responded to the opposition by saying, “The bottom line for me is an officer’s address does not dictate how they perform on the job.”