Kansas City, Missouri, Democratic Mayor Quinton Lucas condemned his Republican governor’s description of the Kansas City parade shooting suspects, arguing that calling them “thugs” is a racial “dog whistle.”
After the shooting at the Chiefs Super Bowl celebration that killed one person and injured more than 20 others — including 11 children — last week, Governor Mike Parson (R-MO) said, “We can’t let some thugs and criminals take over and ruin what happened.”
“It’s just sad. I was there yesterday. I feel for these parents, these kids, everything that went on, it was such a wonderful day and then all of a sudden you end with that,” Parson added.
During an appearance on the KCUR radio show “Up to Date” on Friday, Lucas said he strongly disagreed with Parson’s description of the suspects, Fox News reported.
“I have respect for the governor. We get along well,” Lucas said. “I disagree strongly with how he would describe that situation. I certainly do think this was criminal activity. It was lawlessness, and I think that that’s troubling. But ‘thugs’ is a dog whistle in the most classic sense.”
Lucas, who is black, then slammed “conservative” theories on social media, alleging that authorities and the media are keeping the suspects’ identities under wraps because they are black.
“I’ve seen this dog whistle time and again,” the mayor added. “There’s this kind of giant conservative theory on social media now that the reason these mug shots haven’t been shown is because the purported defendants are black, and if it were a white defendant we would have just shown them. That is absolutely preposterous. There are protections to juveniles.”
That theory was also suggested by conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who said on “Real Time with Bill Maher” last week that “if it were a white man shooting, we’d know.”
“The longer they go without telling you, it’s not a white male,” Coulter added, an argument to which Maher pushed back.
“For right now, as of Friday night, February 16, we don’t officially know,” Maher said. “Ok, you know because you have special powers.”
Authorities announced on Friday that two minors, who police did not identify, were being held on gun-related and resisting arrest charges at a juvenile facility. A third unidentified minor was let go on Thursday after investigators determined that person was not involved in the shooting, according to a Kansas City Police Department spokesman.
Kansas City, Missouri, Police Chief Stacey Graves said at a news conference last Thursday that authorities’ initial findings on the shooting “have shown there was no nexus to terrorism or homegrown violent extremism.”
“This appeared to be a dispute between several people that ended in gunfire,” she said.
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