EDITOR:
As a Kansas City resident and taxpayer, I’m voting a resounding yes on Amendment 4.
¿Por qué un ciudadano de Kansas City no querría que sus funcionarios electos establecieran el presupuesto, y mucho menos que tuvieran el control local del KCPD? El hecho es que tenemos control local, ya que la Junta de Comisionados de Policía está compuesta por residentes de Kansas City y el alcalde. La junta ha sido nominada por gobernadores demócratas y republicanos a lo largo de los años, y los gobernadores demócratas han sido la mayoría de ellos. Gente como el último miembro de la junta es la razón por la que existe la junta y por qué ni él ni el gobierno municipal de Kansas City deberían tener un control independiente sobre el KCPD o el presupuesto.
Mayor Quinton Lucas is a modern day Tom Pendergast. He came into the mayor’s office after using the power of the city council to suspend the voting rights of mostly minority Kansas Citians to rename the Paseo as a political favor to his benefactors with the SCLCKC to get elected. Upon being called on it, he blamed Kansas City voters for “embarrassing the city” for reclaiming those voting rights. He has sided with organizations who chained the doors of the Jackson County Courthouse shut endangering the lives of the employees and citizens inside and who have also harassed and intimidated judges and their families at their homes shepherding their ordinances through the council and into law.
Mayor Lucas has attempted to defund the KCPD, to incite rioters against the KCPD on the Plaza leading chants of “no justice, no peace” and then leading the charge to eventually pardon all of those rioters. The mayor came into office winning the support of both Democrats and Republicans through deception about his positions about working together, promising to bring down crime and murder, yet both have hit record numbers on his watch. Homelessness and addiction is out of control as well, and Quinton Lucas’s response to criticism is block and then assail the character of anyone who disagrees with him as a “hater,” “racist,” “liar” and now “toxic” when challenged on the topic.
Mayor Quinton Lucas has proven time and again he has no problem using the legal system, and the power of government to violate the rights of citizens, to benefit himself politically. He doesn’t believe the rules apply to him, be it his violations of his own COVID mandates or his trampling of basic First Amendment rights. Given his history, to think that he wouldn’t exploit the KCPD for his own political gain would require the willing suspension of disbelief. Mayor Lucas and those on the council he has referred to as his “Comrade(s)” should never be given any operational or fiscal control of the KCPD.
En la era de Pendergast, Kansas City estaba dirigida por la maquinaria política del partido demócrata con facciones en competencia dentro del partido que competían por el control. Fueron llamados las "cabras" y los "conejos". Pendergast usó a la policía y a los fiscales para salirse con la suya, negociando tratos con las facciones políticas y armó a la fuerza policial contra los ciudadanos de Kansas City usándola para obtener ganancias políticas y personales que condujeron al control por parte de una junta de residentes locales designada por el estado. Hoy tenemos facciones similares, aunque más de ellas y con diferentes nombres, como Urban League, Freedom Inc, BikeWalkKC, SCLCKC y otras, todas con sus propias ideas de cómo debería ser la vigilancia, y todavía un gobierno político de la máquina demócrata de partido en Ciudad de Kansas. En la parte superior de la lista actual está el alcalde Quinton Lucas como el corredor de poder, Tom Pendergast, quien solo ocupó brevemente el cargo de concejal, estaría celoso del puesto, pero ciertamente el alcalde Lucas codicia el poder sobre el KCPD que se ha mantenido fuera. su alcance
We have local non-political control, what we don’t need is political control by politicians who have political agendas and who will no doubt exploit and weaponize law enforcement on a local level against their political enemies.
--Brian Mano Kansas City