KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dozens of people woke up Tuesday morning in tents outside Kansas City, Missouri, City Hall as an occupy-style protest entered its fifth day.
The protesters are calling for police reforms. A video of a KCPD officer handcuffing a pregnant woman last week sparked the protest.
Organizers said they will not leave the south lawn of City Hall until the city meets their demands, which include firing police Chief Rick Smith and reallocating 50 percent of the police budget toward social programs designed to help the Black community - like housing and healthcare.
Rebecca Best, an associate professor in the political science department at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, said protests serve two purposes: raise awareness about an issue and put pressure on leaders to solve the problem.
She said historically, protests are effective, but they take time.
Going back to the civil rights movement in the South, Best said sit-ins and demonstrations led to changes like desegregation. She admits those changes took time.
“It was not fast change, it wasn’t a few sit-ins for a couple of weeks and problems solved,” Best said.
The protest outside city hall most resembles the Occupy Wall Street movements which took root in 2011. An Occupy Kansas City protest lasted months outside the Federal Reserve Building.
Best said we may have forgotten about those protests, but they’ve had lasting impacts on Democratic platforms. Raising the minimum wage and making college more affordable are still rallying cries for Democrats.
“They haven’t achieved everything that they got on to the national agenda,” Best said. “But they pushed a lot of change.”
This summer, protesters gathered around the Country Club Plaza as part of a nationwide movement after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Shortly thereafter, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas signed a list of demands and implemented changes aimed at making the police department more accountable. The changes included having an outside agency now investigate shootings where a KCPD officer fires their gun.
“[Protests] get issues on the agenda,” Best explained. “They make it really hard for the public and, by extension, politicians and political leaders to ignore issues that are of importance to enough people.”
Best said non-violent protests are proven to be most effective in getting outsiders to support protests. She said groups with opposing viewpoints use any evidence of vandalism, violence, and, in some cases, civil disobedience to discredit protesters.
“You don’t want to give the other side ammunition against you,” Best said plainly.
The protesters who have formed “The People’s City” outside City Hall should be prepared for a long haul. Best said one of their challenges will be maintaining a cohesive message should more people join their cause.
