KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Protesters are pledging to camp in front of police headquarters in downtown Kansas City until the officer who kneeled on a pregnant Black woman is fired.
KCUR reports that around a dozen protesters spent the night Friday on the lawn outside the police headquarters, with their numbers growing throughout Saturday. They also want Chief Rick Smith to resign.
Witnesses who identified themselves as legal observers and affiliated with a local group of attorneys called “Liberty Lawyers” stood by overnight.
The pregnant woman’s lawyer, Stacy Shaw, said an officer threw the woman to the ground Wednesday night when she complained that he had backed into her as she filmed a balloon release for a homicide victim. But police said in a statement that officers were responding to a report of fighting and that the woman was interfering with officers who were trying to arrest a man.
Video shows the woman on the ground with the officer’s knee on her back while people in the crowd yell to stop because she is pregnant. Some officers can be heard telling the crowd they will be arrested if they don’t move back.
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