To Serve and Protect
The last time KC was shamed this way on a national media stage was with former Mayor Funkhouser and the infamous Mammy-Gate incident.
Fortunately, new Mayor Sly James and his administration and the City Council appear to be in synch on most matters and are working more responsibly for the people. It’s a good thing they are, as the city needs to responsibly manage a challenging budget to prioritize what issues must be addressed, and by what means.
Beyond obvious priorities such as infrastructure and schools are two important issues this community needs to treat among its highest priorities—public safety and crowd control, particularly of youth groups and gangs that continue to cause problems on the Country Club Plaza. It’s embarrassing that a city of such friendly and accommodating citizens could earn a reputation as being among America’s most dangerous. There’s little reason why KC can’t quickly reverse this role to be not only one of the nation’s most livable cities, but also one of the safest.
The recent shootings on the Country Club Plaza should never have happened and never should be repeated. Blame it primarily on three constituencies. First, blame it on the parents who allow their kids to hang out late at night, unsupervised, in an area where they can cause nothing but trouble. Second, blame it on law enforcement and the city for not taking the matter seriously enough to impose and enforce a curfew before it came to bloodshed. Lastly, blame it on Highwoods Properties—the landlord that significantly benefits from the investment that area citizens and travelers bring to this district—for not taking more stringent action to correct the problem.
History Repeats
I hope that there’s not a single person in this city that believes the recent shooting on the Plaza was a random incident. Troublesome kids and issues on the Plaza date back many decades—and well before Highwoods was the landlord. The J.C. Nichols Co. addressed similar issues, but also rapidly addressed the causes and invested in far more than rent-a-cop custodians to patrol the area.
In 1986, I served with a group to redevelop Mill Creek Park—the park where the J.C. Nichols Fountain is located, running from 43rd and Broadway (aka J.C. Nichols Parkway) to 47th Street between J.C. Nichols Parkway and Main. Plaza owner/activist Miller Nichols, who was 75 at the time, led the charge and our alliance redeveloped, or I should say reclaimed, Mill Creek Park. Among the many improvements, we cleared the hillside on the east side of the park west of American Century and the former H&R Block headquarters.
In the process, we relocated no fewer than 50 homeless people living on the hillside. Today, Mill Creek Park appears to be the busiest park for its size in the city. Why? Because a private group of investors,
in collaboration with the Board of Park Commissioners, cared enough to make it safe and improve the park with a jogging trail, exercise equipment, lighting and, most important, an endowment to pay for its on-going maintenance. That increased the number of citizens using the park, and decreased the problems that once dominated it.
But morale among law enforcement plays an important role, too. One sad example was about seven years ago, when I was assaulted in broad daylight in the lobby of our office building, then at 12th and McGee—mind you, this property sits across the street to the west of City Hall and a block from Police Headquarters. I was not threatened nor hurt by this person, but I was pretty mad and willing to do something about it.
What transpired in the following 20 minutes has left me furious since. The homeless whacko who assaulted me crossed to the south side of 12th Street (remember the public library/vagrant district) and walked eastward, taunting as he went. I called the KCPD and they said an officer had been dispatched and would be there in minutes. I kept my distance and waited for the police. The offender meandered to 12th and Locust—across the corner from Police Headquarters. Tired of waiting, I asked a police officer there to help. His response? “It isn’t my job.”
Asked another, who said he, too, was in another department. Asked one guy and he said, “I work in homicide.” I told him to stick around. I literally asked 13 officers and employees of the KCPD and not one of them offered to help in any remote way. The perpetrator sauntered down the street as if he knew what to expect, then faded into the fabric of Downtown. I called then new Police Chief Corwin and he was as pissed as I was. The contributing factors then were that the department was understaffed and employees felt underpaid. But the result, in this incident anyway, was the farthest thing from the motto “To Serve and Protect.”
KC’s iconic Country Club Plaza is a district unlike any in the nation, and it means more to this marketplace than barbecue or jazz. Our window to the world for many visitors here has already been smudged by the presence of too many panhandlers—including one who boasts that his cup-rattling act was good for $80,000 a year. The anti-development signs you see around town urging us to Save Our Plaza are, frankly, targeting the wrong villains.
The fact that authorities have yet to effectively resolve this escalation of violence with a long-term solution is irresponsible. I understand that isolated incidents happen, but it’s well beyond time for the city, police, landlord and parents to act responsibly and eliminate the problem for good. Whether or not they think it’s their job, or whether they think they’re being paid enough to do it. 
Joe Sweeney
Editor-In-Chief & Publisher
JSweeney@IngramsOnLine.com