kmbc | Mayor Quinton Lucas is calling on a special session of the Missouri General Assembly to address violent crime in Kansas City.
On
Friday, Lucas released a letter she sent to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson
calling the situation in Kansas City a ‘crisis point.’ In the letter, he
asks Parson to call for a special session of the assembly to allow
state senators and representatives to vote on legislation to enhance
witness protection funding in Missouri.
“We need state legislative action on several items we have previously
discussed to address our problem,” Lucas said in the letter. “While we
will continue to pursue a broad set of social services and other tools
to address violent crime now and in the future, specific action from
Jefferson City can help us apprehend and incarcerate murderers currently
walking the streets of Kansas City and protect witnesses in our
neighborhoods who are frequently scared to speak.”
Lucas
said additional help is also needed to provide more tools for law
enforcement and prosecutors to “interrupt conspiracies to commit murder
and other violent acts, particularly offenses committed by felons using
deadly weapons.”
“Kansas City is too fine a city, and Missouri too
fine a state to allow violent criminality to define our way of life,”
Lucas wrote. “We will persevere through these challenges, but our
children, our law enforcement community, and all Kansas Citians need
change quickly."
