Kansas City will be part of a nationwide effort Thursday night to honor those who have been victims of police brutality, organized in the wake of the police killing of an unarmed 18-year-old black man near St. Louis.
The National Moment of Silence-Kansas City rally will be held at 7 p.m. at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain on the Country Club Plaza.
Kansas City is one of two dozen cities who are holding the rallies, events planned to be a peaceful way to protest police shootings. The rallies were triggered by a black blogger named Feminista Jones who started a Twitter hashtag, #NMOS14 following the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., on Saturday.
Local organizer Sarah Cole said Kansas City’s close proximity to St. Louis spurred her and others to take part.
“It would be a shame if Kansas City of all the cities failed to respond to what happened,” Cole said. “And it’s such a crucial time and such a crucial opportunity to really speak out against police brutality.”
Organizers stress that the rally will be peaceful. Cole said they want to help people grieve for the death of a young man, but also to be empowered to fight such injustices.
“I think that when these types of tragedies happen they oftentimes leave people feeling really powerless,” she said. “I think we can definitely see that in Ferguson, Mo., right now. People feel powerless. They’re tired of feeling powerless.”
For full coverage of the aftermath of the police shooting of Michael Brown, click here for reports from St. Louis Public Radio.
