KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Members of Kansas City’s Revolutionary Black Panther Party chapter led a march on Prospect Avenue to the Kansas City Police Department’s East Patrol Station calling for local control and demanding equality.
By the end, around 40 people had joined in the march.
General Indigenous Xi with the party said power belongs to the people and led the crowd in saying that they are revolutionaries.
“You can’t fight racism with racism,” Xi said. “You can’t replace one system of oppression with another.”
As they marched down Prospect, the group chanted “Black is beautiful,” and “set our warriors free,” interwoven with “Black power.”
The event was promoted as an armed march, and several party members were, though Xi said no loaded weapons were allowed. Before the march, Xi said during a Friday news conference, people would be educated on being responsible weapon owners.
Outside East Patrol, Xi called for the removal of Police Chief Rick Smith and for local control of the police department. He said if local control was taken away because of corruption, it should be returned for the same reason.
KCPD is the only police department in Missouri — and one of the largest department’s in the country — to not be under local control. Currently it is controlled by a governor-appointed board. Mayor Quinton Lucas, who has said direct city control would make the department more accountable, also has a seat.
Xi also criticized the police union contract’s 48-hour rule, which allows an officer being investigated in a shooting up to 48 hours before they give a statement to investigators.
“We’re not asking for a million dollars. We’re not asking for more than you give other people,” Xi said. “We’re asking for equality and we’re asking for equity.”
Troy Robertson, founder of the “Honk for Peace” initiative, told the group outside East Patrol that he wants peace in Kansas City.
“My friends is dying everyday,” Robertson said. He said he wants to focus on crime in the community.
Xi said he felt Saturday’s march was powerful and effective. He said the party’s community action initiative, which involves becoming more involved in and educating the community, is next.
The march, Xi said, was a statement that they are here.
“We’ve re-surged,” Xi said. “Our heritage, our culture, all of that is now back.”
The Black Panther Party was launched in Oakland, California, in 1966 as part of an effort to protect Black residents against police brutality and racial violence.
Chapters formed in a number of cities across the United States, including Kansas City in 1969, a year after rioting and social unrest took place in the city’s East Side on the day of Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral.
The Panther chapter in Kansas City was founded by Pete O’Neal and operated numerous local social programs, but the group often clashed with police and other law enforcement.
O’Neal was later convicted of transporting a shotgun across the state line, but he fled the United States and currently lives in exile in Tanzania.
The new Kansas City chapter for the Revolutionary Black Panther Party was founded in 2016.
(The Star’s Glenn E. Rice contributed to this story.)
