On most weekend nights in Kansas City, the sound of roaring engines and the smell of burning rubber easily drown out any sounds and smells coming from the city’s iconic barbeque joints.
Hundreds of teens and their hot rods and all-terrain vehicles are clogging the streets, endangering anyone close and taunting the police.
This glut of ATVs on city streets is happening because racers are emboldened by the city’s diminished police presence, The Daily Mail reported earlier this month.
All this comes a year before the city is set to host the FIFA World Cup, soccer’s premiere event. It was last held in the U.S. in 1994.
Randy Sutton of The Wounded Blue says Kansas City police are twice cursed, because it takes a large number of police to quell the violence, tow the cars, make the arrests and keep the peace, and there is already a shortage of police officers.
“The Kansas City PD is so short-staffed because of all of the issues surrounding the anti-law enforcement lobby,” he said.
In 2021 the city "diverted" $42 million from law enforcement to a community services fund. Less money, fewer police, more crime, fewer businesses to raise the needed revenue.
Last month an officer was hit by an ATV.
“Now, frustrated business owners and locals are weighing whether to abandon downtown altogether, blaming the Democrat-run city’s leadership and law enforcement for failing to curb the chaos and restore a sense of safety,” The Daily Mail says.
But there are signs the city is coming to its senses, although it may be too little, too late. City Councilmember Wes Rogers says they're trying to put consequences in place.
“Under law we can seize these ATVs, so we're going to start seizing them, and we're going to smash them,” Rogers says.
He says they're also reclaiming some of the funding.
“We're actually building a new jail just for these people, and we're going to lock them up and we're going to hold them accountable.
