Month: October 2019

The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department has asked the public to help identify a man in his late 20s to early 30s who has been seen looking into house windows in the area of 45th and Wood Avenue, also on Maggie Lane.

According to a police spokesman, the man is about 6-foot and 200 pounds.

Even though residents have caught the suspect peeking into windows, he has been known to break into homes, the spokesman stated.

Anyone with information about these types of incidents is asked to call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS.

Those who live in the area and see someone looking into house windows may call 911, police stated.

by Mary Rupert

“No more guns!” was one of the chants heard at a community walk Monday night in memory of four victims who were slain at the Tequila KC bar at 10th and Central early Sunday morning.

From the number of signs and chants at the community walk, plus comments from readers, gun control remains as an issue here in Wyandotte County, as in so many communities across the nation. Four persons died and five more were injured in the shooting last Sunday.

On Monday, just about a day after the shooting, some local officials commented about violence after a news conference at City Hall. Kansas City, Kansas, police officials were quick to point out at the news conference that the violent crime rate here has declined about 4 percent in the last 27 months.

Although officials said it was not a random event, there was a sense at the Monday news conference that this shooting might have happened anywhere, and Kansas City, Kansas, was unfortunate to be the location of it.

“It’s not the law-abiding citizens of this community that caused this action,” Unified Government Commissioner Tom Burroughs said on Monday. “It was the unlawful criminal intent of those that could choose any community, and unfortunately, it just happened to be ours.”

Unified Government Commissioner Gayle Townsend said on Monday that the nature of these incidents is such that one can’t predict when something like it will happen.

“We pay a price for the freedoms as Americans that we enjoy,” she said. “People who are law-abiding are mixed in with those who are not.”

It’s not always possible to do anything before a shooting happens, although people can take precautions, but the public can become involved by calling the authorities and sharing information, and the authorities can go from there, she said.

Reducing community violence

Gordon Criswell, assistant UG administrator, said there is an initiative through the UG Health Department that is aimed at reducing community violence.

The Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) works with community partners to reduce violence, he said.

“It’s hard programmatically to figure out what you do in terms of programming around violence reduction other than talking about other ways of solving disputes other than turning to violence,” Criswell said.

“I don’t know if we talk about that enough, I don’t know if we teach that enough, about how do you solve a dispute, when you feel like your only option is what we saw this weekend,” Criswell said. “But the community has to be aware there are other options to solving a dispute that does not have to result in violence.

“I just think we have to be ever conscious and look for opportunities to teach, to train, to give our organizations and our community partners the skill sets to help people to have in their tool box other resources to solving a conflict short of a violent response,” Criswell said. “A violent response should not be your only response. There should be a milieu of other kinds of ways to problem-solve before you get to that ultimate decision.”

‘Economic terrorism’

Commissioner Townsend also said another negative impact, in addition to the loss of life, is the “economic terrorism” that violence causes.

A business that had been thriving before this occurred now may have to consider whether to close, creating a loss of income to people, she said.

“It makes it doubly difficult when we want to encourage people to come to our community and do business. This is a form of economic terrorism on a community that we’re not going to tolerate,” she said.

Federal legislation on guns

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-3rd Dist., said on Tuesday that the question about gun legislation feels very heavy at this time because a thriving community has been hit with a tragedy, and a lot of people have been affected by trauma and grief.

She has previously discussed legislation concerning guns, including a bill that passed the House on background checks.

“Unfortunately for me, as soon as I got into the political sphere I was talking about gun safety issues, because my campaign launched the day after the Parkland tragedy,” she said.

What’s needed now is for the Senate to pass the bills that the House has sent it on loopholes and making sure there are common-sense background checks for those purchasing firearms, she said. She said she wants to make sure the Centers for Disease Control is studying the issue of gun safety so Congress can properly address it. Too many communities have been affected by gun violence, she said.