KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As the third week of protests begin in Kansas City, Missouri, the J.C. Nichols Fountain remains the main meeting point for those seeking judicial reform and racial justice.
"It’s important to be out here and to remind everybody that, you know, disadvantaged communities are still being over policed," said Joshua Vaipulu, who traveled from Joplin told 41 Action News. "And, you know, brutally, and that's not going away just because, you know, the spotlights is not on it."
Vaipulu was among the roughly 100 protesters who attend Sunday's Black Kansas City Family (BKCF) rally.
"People have to go to work at some point, you know," Vaipulu said. "You can't just take off every single weekend to be somewhere, and I just think that, you know, having more bodies is important here."
Some of those in attendance, like Jonathan Stivers, a BKCF organizer, shared their experiences in an open mic session.
"All voices should be heard in anyway or fashion that people feel like they need to be heard. You know, and they, we they've had some beautiful, beautiful voices out there some amazing powerful voices," Stivers said.
The rally happened the same week that Board of Police Commissioners will meet.
On Tuesday, the board will look at policy after its members ordered KCPD Police Chief Rick Smith to review the department's use of tear gas and projectiles following the events that occurred when protests first beganin Kansas City, Missouri.
"They may do something like, what I like to call, like try to give us a piece of candy to try to slow us down," Ledet Brown, another BKCF organizer said. "But it's deeper than that. I mean, for real, the police system is just evil, is just infected, you know what I mean? Is infected from day one and it needs to be cleaned up."
Although Sunday's group was considerably smaller, organizers believe that doesn't matter.
"We’ve done marches is with 10 people, and we'll do marches with thousands of people," Stivers said. "We believe every voice should be heard. And you know, numbers aren't going to be one thing that stops us."
