Blog: Plaza protests wind dow.n on 8th consecutive night

10:15 p.m. | The eighth straight night of protests near the Country Club Plaza is winding to a close with no reported clashes with police.

9:29 p.m. | As demonstrators near the Country Club Plaza began to march on the eighth consecutive day of Black Lives Matter protests, police began blocking streets in the area to traffic to ensure the protesters' safety.

6:10 p.m. | One day after NFL players, including Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and safety Tyrann Mathieu, appeared in a social media video outlining the response they wanted to hear from the NFLin the wake of George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police, the league responded.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell appeared in a video and repeated, almost verbatim, the message about social justice players had demanded. That included admitting that the NFL was wrong to try and stifle peaceful protests by players, which started when former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and extra-judicial killings of black people.

Message from Commissioner Roger Goodell from NFL Football Operations on Vimeo.

5:30 p.m. | Smithville Police Chief Jason Lockridge issued a strong condemnation Friday of the killing of George Floyd, which he called "one of the most heinous things I’ve witnessed a police officer do."

"The Smithville Police Department stands with the protesters and strongly denounces the actions of Derek Chauvin and the inaction of the three former officers who stood by and did nothing," Lockridge continued. "What you see in that video is NOT within policy nor training of the Smithville Police Department. We expect our officers to be professionals, and they are required by policy to intercede if a fellow officer goes too far."

He went on to say that his department will not tolerate similar behaviors as its mission is to serve Smithville "with honor, integrity and compassion."

3:13 p.m. | 41 Action News has compiled a gallery of photos from today's protests. See them here.

Dan Cohen/KSHB

2:40 p.m. | Many businesses on the Country Club Plaza reopened Friday after being closed for several days due to protests in the area.

Click here for an updated list of open restaurants, shops and other businesses.

1:55 p.m. | Protesters began marching from the area of City Hall through downtown. Shortly after 2 p.m. police said they returned to City Hall.

1:40 p.m. | The protesters relocated again, this time to the Jackson County Courthouse, according to a tweet from KCPD.

1:10 p.m. | The peaceful demonstrators marched to KCPD headquarters, where they stood behind police tape facing officers and troops from the Missouri National Guard.

Organizers led the crowd in chants as some knelt or laid down.

12:50 p.m. | Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas signed a list of demands from Black Lives Matter organizers after a rousing speech in which he called for foundational change in Jackson County and Missouri.

Watch below.

11:55 a.m. | The family of Ryan Stokes, who was killed by a Kansas City, Missouri, police officer in 2013 near the Power and Light District, is addressing protesters at City Hall.

11:15 a.m. | U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (D - Kansas) was among the speakers to take the podium Friday morning on the steps of city hall.

11:05 a.m. | Although unrelated to this morning's protests downtown, Kansas City, Missouri, police tweeted Friday morning that most of Thursday night's protests -in which police maintained a minimal presence - went well. They did receive one report of an attempted fire at the door of business on the Country Club Plaza.

10:45 a.m. | After leaving Jarboe Park around 9:45 a.m., Voz KC protesters completed their mile-and-a-half walk to Kansas CIty, Missouri, City Hall around 10:30 a.m.

10:30 a.m. | One week after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked daily protests in Kansas City, protesters on Friday planned to move their demonstration to the steps of City Hall.

Protesters began marching toward downtown Kansas City, Missouri, shortly after 10 a.m., where they planned to rally at City Hall for several hours, denouncing systemic racism and police brutality.

Voz KC begins its march toward downtown. @41actionnews pic.twitter.com/8qinDByoBQ

— Dan Cohen (@DanCohenTV) June 5, 2020

On Thursday night, protesters marched peacefully through the Country Club Plaza and Westport, as they had done every night for the last week. Tensions between police and protesters have deescalated throughout the week, however, and there was no large police presence on the Plaza on Thursday.

Protests last weekend began peacefully but turned violent in the later evening hours, with some demonstrators throwing objects at police officers and refusing to stay on the sidewalks.

Police on Thursday reopened streets on the Plaza for the first time since the weekend. Protesters briefly blocked intersections for eight minutes and 46 seconds at a time — the same amount of time that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck while he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.

Floyd’s death has ignited similar protests across the country over the last week.