KC police arrest volunteers serving free meals in Kansas City parking lot. Why?
The group said Kansas City police arrested two volunteers with the Kansas City Food Not Bombs on Sunday for trespassing in a parking lot where the group had long served food.
Two people were charged Monday in Kansas City Municipal Court for allegedly trespassing at the address where the group was serving food, according to court records.
A volunteer, mutual-aid group that serves free, hot, vegan meals on Sundays in a parking lot near the intersection of Independence Boulevard and Monroe Avenue in Kansas City’s Lykins neighborhood – A video of the arrests on January 4 was published on social media on Friday.. The video shows a group of Kansas City police officers handcuffing two people in a parking lot and ushering other people away from the area.
“I told you you were on private property and trespassing,” a uniformed police officer says as he puts handcuffs on a person’s wrists.
Later in the video, a voice can be heard addressing the people gathered at the scene of the arrests: “You are trespassing. Leave. Otherwise, you will be handcuffed too. Does everyone understand? This is your warning. You can film as much as you want, you can trespass, but you are trespassing and if you don’t leave immediately, I will arrest you.”
Kansas City’s Food Is Not the Bomb, he said in a post on social media Wednesday He said police forced all volunteers to leave the area and dispersed anyone who came to dinner under threat of further arrest.
“Food is a human right,” the group said. “We have the right to public space and to demonstrate.”
Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department, said in an email to The Star Saturday that police “received numerous complaints from nearby businesses and residents after asking this organization to leave their private property.” He said police received the first report of the complaints on January 1.
“The two individuals observed being arrested in the shared video had previously been trespassed and refused to leave, resulting in a response from KCPD,” he wrote.
Kansas City resident Michael McConnell, one of two volunteers charged with trespassing, said in an email to The Star on Friday that he and the other volunteer were not officially notified of trespassing until they were arrested. McConnell confirmed that he and the other volunteer were arrested for allegedly trespassing in the mall parking lot, where free meals were served.
He said the group has been serving food at the location for about 13 years and has never had a negative encounter with Kansas City police. In fact, he noted: The police department lists the group and its weekly meals as a community nutrition resource on its website.
We have been serving food for 13 years
McConnell said some business owners in the area claim that people who come to meals served by the group are “causing trouble for their businesses, allegedly stealing and creating havoc.” He said the group was respectful and regularly cleared the area of rubbish.
“We cannot be responsible for every action taken by the many neighbors we help after they arrive at our desks,” he said.
Kansas City Food Not Bombs sets up an outdoor food line curbside for one to one and a half hours, serving 50 to 100 meals and hundreds of pounds of bread and produce each week, McConnell said. Items served include peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, soup, pasta, salads and coffee, he said, and most of the food comes from grocery stores and restaurants and would otherwise go to waste.
He said Kansas City Food Not Bombs plans to adapt its service pattern to avoid trespassing charges in the future, and the group hopes to continue being good neighbors to the people and businesses on Independence Avenue.
“Like all other Food Not Bombs groups, we do this as a protest against the waste of war, the government’s choice not to solve poverty, and the environmental destruction caused by our wasteful food systems.”
