Kansas
‘A breaking point’ Kansas City Activists reflect on five years after George Floyd protests
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – It has been five years since the killing of George Floyd, a moment that ignited nationwide protests and renewed demands for racial justice and police reform. In Kansas City, some protestors feel their calls for justice remain unanswered.
At Mill Creek Park on the Country Club Plaza, where demonstrations erupted in May 2020, community members gathered to reflect on the progress made and the work that remains.
Demonstrators recall scenes of chaos that unfolded during the protests. People recall shielding their eyes from tear gas, seeing water bottles thrown, and people getting trampled in the crowd.
“That situation that day, man, it changed the look of America,” said Pat Clarke, a longtime community outreach advocate who was on the ground trying to de-escalate tensions.
Eric Morrison, senior pastor at Kingdom Word Ministries, said what he witnessed shows how cries for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death reached a tipping point in Kansas City.
“When you see something like that happen to a person, and knowing this country’s history, you recognize a breaking point,” Morrison said. “As a 62-year-old Black man, it’s the repetitiveness of it. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it again.”
Now, five years later, questions remain whether the city has truly seen progress.
Despite the passage of time, many activists say their calls for justice remain unanswered.
“It still hasn’t changed for me,” said Morrison, “until we see policies being implemented, when we see police officers that have been in these places abusing people white, black or whatever, and they’re still on the force, and they’re being suspended with pay… until that goes away, until they are literally charged with a crime, then it’s there and it’ll be there,” he said.
Since 2020, city leaders say some reforms have been made. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas pointed to new transparency efforts, including more opportunities for public comment during Board of Police Commissioners meetings and shifting officer-involved shooting investigations to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
“Often, rioting is the voice of the unheard,” Lucas said. “A lot of people felt unheard in the system and the process. Hopefully, after all these years, people feel more heard.”
According to a KCPD spokesperson, 2020 also marked the rollout of body cameras for officers and updated use-of-force training. Chief Graves implemented ICAT training for our law enforcement members, which stands for Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics. KCPD describes it as an ‘innovative and evidence-based approach’ to use-of-force training.
Clarke said it’s hard to tell where change is headed.
“I’d say it’s changing,” he said. “But in what direction? I can’t tell you.”
He has had ongoing conversations with local police about what police reform could look like, even proposing the idea of sensitivity training.
“There’s a lot of officers who come in that’s never dealt with a community like this before,” said Clarke, “They didn’t grow up in one.”
Activists say the next step forward must involve community unity and legislative action.
“Things have to change in that way because behind the blue wall is freedom.”
Meanwhile, city leaders say the work for justice continues.
“It’s making sure that when we talk about Black people — in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas, and America — that we’re actually standing up for victims in more situations,” said Mayor Quinton Lucas. “On the accountability side, including with policing and the city more broadly, it is making sure that we’re not only paying high legal settlements — which we do — but also making sure that we’re finding ways to not be in those settlements at all. That we’re doing the training necessary to not get in those situations.”
Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.
Rep. Abi Boatman gives her thoughts on transgender bathroom bill
Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Kelly’s veto for transgender bathroom bans. Hear what this trans legislator has to say.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit challenging Kansas’ new sweeping anti-transgender law, the first in the nation to rescind previously issued IDs with updated gender markers.
Senate Bill 244 took effect Feb. 26 after the Republican supermajorities in the Kansas Legislature overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
“This legislation is a direct attack on the dignity and humanity of transgender Kansans,” said Monica Bennett, the ACLU of Kansas’ legal director, in a statement. “It undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government overreach and persecution.”
The lawsuit was filed Feb. 26 in Douglas County District Court on behalf of two anonymous plaintiffs. The lawyers on the case are from the ACLU and Ballard Spahr LLP. They argue “that SB 244 violates the Kansas Constitution’s protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.”
The law prohibits transgender Kansans from changing the sex or gender marker on their driver’s license and birth certificates. It also immediately invalidated identification documents for more than 1,000 transgender Kansans who already had changes approved.
The law also bans transgender people from using bathrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities in government buildings that align with their gender identity. They must instead use the restroom corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. Additionally, the law bans gender-neutral bathrooms with more than one stall.
The law has various enforcement provisions, including allowing anyone to sue someone else who they think is transgender and suspected of using a restroom that is different from their sex assigned at birth.
Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach lobbied for lawmakers to explicitly ban gender marker changes after state courts allowed them to resume amid litigation over a predecessor law, Senate Bill 180. Lawmakers then added the bathroom bill provisions through a gut-and-go without a public hearing.
The state of Kansas, represented by Kobach, is a defendant in the case. Other defendants include agencies and agency leadership under the Kelly administration, including the Kansas Department of Revenue and Kansas Department of Administration.
Spokespeople for Kobach and Kelly did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The plaintiffs have filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and asked for a hearing on Feb. 27 “or as soon as possible.”
Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
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The Kansas Division of Vehicles (DOV) has instructed transgender residents to surrender their updated driver’s licenses, as one of the nation’s most extreme anti-trans laws takes effect this week.
Trans Kansans received letters from the DOV on Wednesday informing them that licenses and other state ID papers that do not match a person’s assigned sex at birth are considered invalid and must be surrendered to the state effective immediately, ostensibly giving them less than 24 hours to make accommodations, according to multiple copies of the letter reviewed by the Kansas City Star.
“Please note that the Legislature did not include a grace period for updating credentials,” the letter read in part. “That means that once the law is officially enacted, your current credentials will be invalid immediately, and you may be subject to additional penalties if you are operating a vehicle without a valid credential.” Affected residents were “directed to surrender your current credential to the Kansas Division of Vehicles” and receive a new ID — at their own expense, as SB 244 did not provide state funding to cover the reversions, the Star noted.
The move comes as a result of Kansas’ SB 244, which became law on Thursday and instructs state agencies to reverse gender marker changes on official documents. Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the legislation, but the Republican supermajority overrode her veto last week.
Kansas officially recognizes only “male” and “female” as recorded at birth as valid sexes, per a state law passed in 2023. About 1,700 people are expected to have their licenses invalidated as a result of the new law, according to a legislative analysis of SB 244 conducted by the state House. The law will also invalidate amended birth certificates that were issued with a corrected gender marker.
The LGBTQ Foundation of Kansas shared a copy of one letter on Instagram, with identifying information redacted. Representatives for the nonprofit noted that some Kansas counties will hold special elections next week, and trans residents without valid photo ID cards will not be able to cast a vote under existing state law.
At least three other states have passed laws banning gender marker changes on driver’s licenses, but Kansas is now the only U.S. state to require such previous changes be reverted, according to KCTV.
“The persecution is the point,” said Rep. Abi Boatman, Kansas’ only trans state legislator, in a statement to the Star on Wednesday. “It tells me that Kansas Republicans are interested in being on the vanguard of the culture war and in a race to the bottom,” she added in a comment to KCTV.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A Kansas City man has now been charged in the death of a teenage girl who was reported missing and found dead a day later from a gunshot.
Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson announced Wednesday that Eric R. Phillips II has been charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and abandoning a corpse, following the girl’s November 2025 death.
Elayjah Murray had been reported missing on Nov. 28, 2025. As investigators looked into her disappearance, the Independence Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Unit learned that she’d possibly been shot.
Multiple witnesses and surveillance footage helped detectives identify Phillips as the shooter. Court documents say he shot Murray multiple times while she was in the back of his car during the early morning hours of Nov. 28.
A day later, police with the Kansas City Missouri Police Department found Murray in Kansas City. Phillips’ cell phone pinged in the area where Murray’s body was located.
Phillips’ bond has been set at $350,000 cash only.
Johnson said Phillips was charged on Dec. 3, 2025, under seal. The case was unsealed Wednesday in an effort to help locate Phillips.
Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.
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