Source: Kansas City Star / Getty
Last Sunday—nine days after a Black woman reportedly escaped the home of her white male kidnapper and torturer—”a group of about two dozen people gathered in prayer at a gas station parking lot roughly 40 miles to the southwest in Kansas City’s Marlborough Heights neighborhood,” according to the Kansas City Star.
As we previously reported, the Kansas City Police Department called the testimony of concerned Black community members “completely unfounded rumors” when they talked about numerous murdered and missing Black women in the area that didn’t appear to be drawing much attention from local law enforcement. That attitude made the department look pretty damn silly when less than a month later, the aforementioned Black woman was discovered banging on people’s doors desperately searching for help after escaping her alleged kidnapper and torturer, Timothy M. Haslett Jr.
So, it should be no surprise that Black community leaders are refusing to let up on speaking out against what they believe is a haphazard-at-best effort by police to look into cases in which Black women go missing or turn up dead.
“They’re afraid to go out in the streets and do anything because who knows what can happen,” one woman said during the vigil, which was held near East 80th Street and Prospect Avenue, the area where Haslett’s alleged victim was reportedly taken from. “You know, who knows, because the police don’t protect Black women. The media doesn’t protect Black women. It’s like we just look out for ourselves.”
From the Star:
Michele Watley, founder of Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, an organization dedicated to empowering Black women in leadership, said concerns of missing Black women are often downplayed by police and local media in a way that is “beyond problematic and irresponsible.” She said that contributes to difficulty in the solving of missing persons cases in the Black community generally.
“With both sides of the state line – Kansas and Missouri – having been at the center of sex trafficking, there must be urgency when addressing claims of missing Black people. Because of this, our community has to be the first line of defense, keeping an eye on those we love and standing tall against the systems that fail us seemingly at every turn,” Watley said in a statement.
Source: Kansas City Black Community Leaders Hold Vigil For Missing Black Women Allegedly Ignored By Police
