KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Reminding Kansas City, Kansas, leadership they are still concerned about issues of racial injustice, a group of 40 demonstrators demanded change for hours outside City Hall on Monday.
“Tax dollars are being taken in, but they’re not being distributed in the proper ways and that needs to be changed,” said Khadijah Hardaway, social justice chair at Grant Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wyandotte County. “You can no longer throw people crumbs and think they’re going to survive.”
In addition to the issue of economic inequities, the group also demanded that KCK establish a bilingual police hotline for the nearly 27% of Hispanic residents who make up the county's population.
Trina Crawford, an educator with Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, said there is a “lack of accountability within our force” as it relates to how they work with the community.
In response to weeks of protests and years of racial tension, KCK announced a newly formed task force on community and police relations.
“I want to hear what they have to say and how i can do it better..how my officers can do better,” KCKPD Interim Police Chief Michael York said.
RELATED STORY: KCK leaders form task force to gather community input on local law enforcement
But some said the task force doesn’t go far enough.
“They should be talking about what’s happening around the country and what’s happening in Wyandotte,” Hardaway said. “We are not leaving… we’re going to stand here until justice is met.”
