KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Protesters are pledging to camp in front of police headquarters in downtown Kansas City until the officer who kneeled on a pregnant Black woman is fired.
KCUR reports that around a dozen protesters spent the night Friday on the lawn outside the police headquarters, with their numbers growing throughout Saturday. They also want Chief Rick Smith to resign.
Witnesses who identified themselves as legal observers and affiliated with a local group of attorneys called “Liberty Lawyers” stood by overnight.
The pregnant woman’s lawyer, Stacy Shaw, said an officer threw the woman to the ground Wednesday night when she complained that he had backed into her as she filmed a balloon release for a homicide victim. But police said in a statement that officers were responding to a report of fighting and that the woman was interfering with officers who were trying to arrest a man.
Video shows the woman on the ground with the officer’s knee on her back while people in the crowd yell to stop because she is pregnant. Some officers can be heard telling the crowd they will be arrested if they don’t move back.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Video of a Kansas City police officer kneeling on the back of a pregnant Black woman while arresting her have led to calls for the officer involved to be fired and reignited demands that the police chief resign.
Civil rights groups and the police tell different versions of what happened Wednesday night when the woman was arrested. Police say she interfered while they were trying to arrest a man and while they were trying to handcuff her.
The woman's attorney, Stacy Shaw, and others ridiculed that story Friday and said the arrest was another example of the police department's abuse of Black citizens in Kansas City.
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KANSAS CITY (AP) — Kansas City police are investigating after videos on social media show an officer kneeling on the back of a pregnant woman while handcuffing her during a confrontation.
The officers were arresting a man Wednesday night when the woman “grabbed and touched” the officers, police spokesman Capt. Dave Jackson said Thursday. He said the woman was evaluated and released from a hospital, The Kansas City Star reported.
Jackson said the department has not had a chance to review the officers' video or surveillance video but are taking the incident seriously.
He encouraged anyone who was at the scene and wants to voice concerns about what they saw to file complaints with the Office of Community Complaints or the police department.
The incident in eastern Kansas City began as a fight between two women at a business. Police cleared the area but a man refused to leave and the woman who is shown in the vehicle would not stop interfering with the arrest, WDAF-TV reported.
She and the man were arrested for interfering with the arrest, Jackson said. No names have been released.
Civil rights attorney Stacy Shaw posted the video to social media Thursday.
“It’s just an example of how the police have no regard for anyone,” Shaw said. “If they are going to do this to a visibly pregnant woman, imagine what they’re doing to the kids out in the street.”