By way of Justice Namaste at the feminist site Jezebel, community activist Keiajah Brooks gives a master class in etiquette and elocution before the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, as she and others demanded the resignation of Police Chief Rick Smith:
“Fair warning, I’m not nice and I don’t seek to be respectable. I’m not asking y’all for anything because y’all can’t and won’t be both my savior and my oppressor. I don’t want reform. I want to turn this building into luxury low cost housing. These would make some really nice apartments.”
“So I’m not here begging anything of soulless white folks and self-preserving Black folks. You get one life, and you all in this room have chosen profits over people. And that’s pathetic.
So I’m going to spend the next two minutes reading y’all for filth, something I’m sure nobody has ever done.”
We all should have such courage, be so forthright, and of course, show exactly the same degree of discretion and decorum and concern for the delicate sensibilities of the Police Lives Matter crowd.
Well done, I say, and thank you Keiajah Brooks for showing the way.
You can sign a petition (I did) demanding the Chief’s removal at Change.org. here:
Demand the Removal of KCPD Chief Rick Smith for Enabling Police Brutality.
KCPD Chief Rick Smith has continually hindered the investigation and prosecution of his officers by 1) refusing to file probable cause statements against his officers because 2) he doesn’t believe his officers have done anything wrong, even though the Jackson County Prosecutor is actively trying to pursue charges against one or more KCPD officers for misconduct/police brutality/and violence.
Our KCMO communities cannot and should not trust a police department with a Chief who refuses to hold his own officers accountable for their behavior but instead, forcefully works to protect violent police officers.
Additionally, instead of writing citations, Chief Smith ordered the tear gassing of hundreds of peaceful protesters simply because they went past curfew in a public park by a mere 30 minutes. Children, the elderly, the disabled, Street Medics and even residents in the area were subjected to the dangerous chemicals of tear gas canisters at an excessive amount that should never be deployed by a local police department in effort to disperse peaceful protesters from a public space.