Faith In The Wake Of Tragedy

A crowd gathering

President Obama has called the Orlando, Florida massacre a case of “homegrown extremism,” with gunman Omar Mateen reportedly pledging allegiance to the Islamic State during the attack at a popular gay nightclub. But the religious sentiment was altogether different at a Sunday evening vigil in downtown Kansas City to honor the dead and wounded from…

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Life, Prison, Then Life Again

Woman

The prison population is growing, and growing fast. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the number of incarcerated felons grew by 408 percent between the years of 1978 and 2014. Even more eye-opening: The number of incarcerated women in the United States ballooned 646 percent between the years of 1980 and 2010, according to a study from The Sentencing Project, a…

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KCPT Crime Discussion Yields Many Proposed Solutions

Nick Haines questions a Kansas City councilwoman

If there was one main takeaway from a Tuesday evening crime caucus in Kansas City, Missouri, it’s that there is no consensus on the best way to stem the tide of violence plaguing the urban core. Along with audience members, a nine-member panel that included representatives from law enforcement, academia, community organizations, and politics discussed…

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Cops and Pastors

Police brutality has rocked communities from the East Coast to the Midwest, including here in Kansas City with the shooting death of Ryan Stokes, and a recent Gallup poll found that Americans’ trust in police is at its lowest point in more than two decades. The Kansas City Police Department and Council Member Jermaine Reed…

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UG says no to police body cameras in KCK, for now

Citing high costs and legal unknowns, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County has rejected a federal grant for body cameras for the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department. In the wake of the Ferguson crisis in Missouri, police body cameras have received national attention, and KCMO Mayor Sly James has expressed a desire to bring the…

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