KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dozens of people gathered Saturday in Kansas City, Missouri, for a rally aimed at combating crime in the Kansas City metro.
“We plan to do this once a month until this thing grows as big as possible," said Sheoni Givens, president of the Justice and Dignity Center.
The event, held at Town Fork Creek Park, brought together adults and children for food, games and conversations about how to take back the community.
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“Anything that’s worked and throwing out anything that doesn’t work, because it’s implementation time," Givens said, "and so that’s what we’re focused on. We’re getting ready to implement that plan, identifying those underlying factors and using those things to help prevent the crime that we’ve seen escalate for months now."
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In the Kansas City metro area, 273 homicides occurred in 2020. In Kansas City, Missouri, alone, 176 people were killed last year, setting a record.
So far this year, 42 people have been killed in the metro area, 23 of those incidents happening in Kansas City, Missouri.
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“What happens is Kansas City is so large, but all the problems are identical, they are the same," Givens said, "between the substance abuse, the mental health, the domestic violence, the crime, it’s just been an escalation in all areas. And so it’s going to require all areas of Kansas City to come together and that is what today is about."
Givens told 41 Action News she believes people across the metro should be involved in stopping the violence and not just those living in areas heavily impacted by crime.
“We believe with that philosophy that we can help prevent a lot of this violence that’s happening because you don’t commit violence against somebody you supposedly care about," Givens said.
