Surge Of Federal Agents In Kansas City Sparks Controversy, Leaves Divide In Community
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Caskets on display at Serenity Funeral Home in Kansas City, Mo., where many of the city’s homicide victims are memorialized.
Frank Morris
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Frank Morris
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The Citadel Apartments where LeGend Taliferro was killed by a bullet fired from outside while he slept in his bedroom.
Frank Morris
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Frank Morris
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Lucas, however, says that the murder rate in Kansas City had begun to climb long before the protests.
«To suggest otherwise is to try to not just dog whistle but, frankly, dog bark about racial politics, Lucas said on the steps of City Hall last week. «It’s to try to divide our community and our country. It’s totally unnecessary and it doesn’t help us solve a single violent crime incident.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr last week falsely claimed agents assigned to Operation LeGend had already made 200 arrests in Kansas City. Garrison, who was in the room with Barr, says it triggered a hurried confab between himself, FBI, and administration officials. At the time, federal agents had actually made exactly one publicly known arrest related to the operation.
Last December there was a similarly focused initiative called Operation Relentless Pursuit, which involved similar objectives and similar agencies. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced Operation Relentless Pursuit to wind down early, according to Garrison.
Garrison says Operation LeGend is something of a reboot, which has since resulted in more than a dozen arrests.
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Da-Nearle Clarke, an apprentice funeral director at Serenity Funeral Home in Kansas City, Mo., knows the families of many of the murder victims memorialized here.
Frank Morris
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Da-Nearle Clarke, an apprentice funeral director at Serenity Funeral Home in Kansas City, Mo., knows the families of many of the murder victims memorialized here.
Frank Morris
Activist Sara Shaw says one of those arrests, the apprehension of Jonta Johnson last Thursday, demonstrates how enhanced law enforcement can traumatize people in the Black community.
«Cassidy Jordan – she’s 27 and has a 7-year- old daughter – is an example of a collateral consequence, Shaw says. «Her child’s father was arrested, not for murder, but for gun and drug charges. And her daughter had federal agents pointing a gun at her and her mother.
Shaw compares Operation LeGend to a military occupation. She says it’s doomed to failure because only better schools and job opportunities will halt the cycle of violence.
Other community members, though, welcome the additional federal presence.
Da-Nearle Clarke, an apprentice funeral director at Serenity Funeral Home at Bannister and Troost, knows the families of many of the murder victims memorialized here.
«I support Operation LeGend 100%, Clarke says. «There’s a whole lot of homicides happening now, and it needs to stop.
Clarke says this as he stands in an enormous room filled with hundreds of meticulously-spaced purple chairs and an open casket up front. It’s the room where LeGend Taliferro was memorialized.
«It was a whole lot of hurt in this room that day,Clarke says. «I myself felt it. A lot of our community, people in the community felt it. They feel it still.
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