Kansas City police arrested two volunteers carrying “Kansas City Food Not Bombs” on Sunday for trespassing in a parking lot where the organization has long served meals, the organization said.
Two people were charged Monday in Kansas City court for allegedly trespassing at an address where the group served meals, according to court records.
The group, a volunteer mutual aid group that provides free hot vegetarian meals every Sunday in a parking lot near the intersection of Independence and Monroe avenues in Kansas City’s Lykins neighborhood, posted a video of the Jan. 4 arrest on social media Friday. Video shows a group of Kansas City police officers handcuffing two people in a parking lot and chasing others away from the area.
“I told you you were on private property and you were trespassing,” a uniformed officer said as he placed handcuffs on one man’s wrist.
Later in the video, a voice can be heard telling people gathered near the arrest site: “You’re trespassing. Get out. Or you’re going to be handcuffed, too. Does everyone understand? This is your warning. You can film whatever you want and you’re welcome, but you’re trespassing and if you don’t leave now, I’m going to arrest you.”
Food Not Bombs Kansas City posted on social media Wednesday that police had forced all of its volunteers to leave the area and dispersed anyone who came to eat, threatening further arrests.
“Food is a human right,” the organization said. “We have a right to use public space and we have a right to demonstrate.”
Officer Alaina Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department, said in an email to The Saturday Star that police “received multiple complaints from nearby businesses and residents after asking the group to leave their private property.” She said police received an initial report of the complaint on Jan. 1.
“The two people arrested were observed in the shared video having previously been trespassed and refused to leave, leading KCPD to respond,” she wrote.
Kansas City resident Michael McConnell, one of two volunteers charged with trespassing, told the Star in an email Friday that neither he nor the other volunteer was informed that they had officially been trespassing until they were arrested. McConnell confirmed he and another volunteer were arrested for allegedly trespassing in a strip mall parking lot where free meals were being served.
The group has been serving meals at the location for about 13 years and has never had any negative run-ins with Kansas City police before, he said. In fact, he noted, the police department lists the group and its weekly meals as a community nutrition resource on its website.
Providing meals for 13 years
McConnell said some business owners in the area claimed that people who came to eat the meals provided by the organization “brought trouble to their businesses, with alleged shoplifting and disorder.” He said the organization has been very respectful and cleans up litter in the area regularly.
“We cannot be responsible for every action taken by one of our dozens of neighbors who have helped put our table at some point,” he said.
McConnell said Food Not Bombs in Kansas City has set up an outdoor food line area on the edge of the sidewalk for an hour to an hour and a half, providing 50 to 100 meals a week along with hundreds of pounds of bread and produce. The food provided includes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, soups, pasta, salads and coffee, with much of the food coming from grocery stores and restaurants that would otherwise go to waste, he said.
He said Food Not Bombs Kansas City plans to adjust its service settings to avoid future trespassing charges, and said the organization hopes to continue to be a good neighbor to the people and businesses on Independence Avenue.
“Like all the other ‘Food Not Bombs’ groups,” he said, “we do this to protest the waste of war, government choices not to address poverty, and the environmental damage caused by our wasteful food system.”
