‘Justice can’t wait’: Activists, faith leaders renew demands for DOJ investigation into KCKPD

A coalition of faith leaders and community activists on Monday renewed their call for federal investigators to examine the practices of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.

Members of MORE2, the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, gathered outside the Robert J. Dole Federal Courthouse and said they plan to file an addendum to a request made about 90 days ago seeking the U.S. Department of Justice to review the police department’s patterns and practices.

“We are demanding justice for the people of Wyandotte County and justice for the people of Kansas City, Kansas,” said David Grummon, chair of the group’s Kansas Criminal Justice Task Force. “Justice can’t wait.”

Grummon said the group was going to submit to the Justice Department a series of news columns written by Melinda Henneberger, former vice president and editorial page editor for The Star who last week was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the commentary category for her coverage.

In her writings, Henneberger demanded justice for alleged victims of former Kansas City, Kansas, detective Roger Golubski. Henneberger, who is now a columnist for the Sacramento Bee, had previously wrote that Golubski extorted Black women for sexual favors, sometimes using them to fabricate evidence in criminal cases he was investigating.

Grummon said the group was still demanding a federal investigation but was shifting their strategy to highlight Henneberger’s writings about the police department.

Several members of the group stood behind Grummon and held poster-size printouts of eight of Henneberger’s columns as well as a recent Sunday front page story about Golubski.

MORE2 has repeatedly called for an external probe of the department, claiming it is rife with corruption. Grummon said the group has not yet received a response from the DOJ.

Police Chief Karl Oakman said Monday that the department has worked to improve and strengthen relations between law enforcement and the community.

Since being appointed police chief, Oakman said he has brought the FBI in to train captains and other supervisors on color of law violations and other race related policing issues.

“I’m to work with community partners that are willing to work with the police department to reduce violent crime because our number one issue is current violent crime, not investigating issues from the 90s,” Oakman said. “I have to be focused on 2022.”

The police department came under scrutiny in 2017 when Lamonte McIntyre was exonerated after spending 23 years in prison for a double murder he did not commit. In his lawsuit against the police department, McIntyre accused police officers of manipulating eyewitnesses and wrote police reports with fabricated information.

Grummon said the mass shooting that occurred Saturday in Buffalo, New York, where a white gunman opened fire at a grocery store that served a predominantly Black shoppers killing 10 and wounding three, has given the group a sense of urgency in seeking the federal review of the police department.

“We’re not going to wait anymore because justice cannot wait,” Grummon said. “Not for all of the victims that have suffered brutality and crimes and sexual assault and possibly even murder at the hands of law enforcement.”

Grummon said the group has repeatedly asked the local government to demand a federal investigation into the police department.

Since taking office in December, Wyandotte County Mayor Tyrone Garner has told various news outlets, including The Star, that he supports “outside investigations” into the police department where he once worked.

“We knew that Gulobski could not have done this in isolation,” Grummon said during the press conference Monday. “How could this have occurred in a department? Too many people had to look the other way.”