Kansas City’s Democratic mayor has passed the buck to police about his city’s collapse into Mad Max-style lawlessness, with gangs of thugs and bikers scaring locals to stay in their homes after dark.
Speaking with the Daily Mail, Quinton Lucas slammed the ‘reckless and foolish’ street-racing gangs that terrify locals, but rejected claims that he’s personally responsible for the collapse of law and order in his city.
Residents and business owners accuse Lucas of soft-on-crime policies and failing to prosecute lawbreakers since the George Floyd race riots of 2020, and of ignoring their repeated pleas for public safety.
Despite these widespread concerns, Lucas said the problem was under control, that Kansas City could ‘handle this moment’ and that a police recruitment drive would get more officers on the streets in the coming months.
He spoke as his terrified residents complain that downtown Kansas City has become a hotspot for illegal street racing, reckless ATV and dirt bike riders tearing through the neighborhoods.
Locals now fear to tread downtown after dark — and owners of bars and restaurants there say they can understand why, while also complaining that they’re on the brink of going bust.
The dystopian scenes recall the Mad Max movies, which saw a ‘road warrior’ played by Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy terrorized by post-apocalyptic gangs riding motorbikes and ATVs across the n desert.
Another video of brazen lawlessness emerged this week, showing two people mercilessly punching and kicking another person on the sidewalk at a bus stop in the downtown area at night.
‘We need to make sure that we have enough officers,’ Mayor Lucas, 40, told Daily Mail in a phone interview on Friday.
‘More than anything, we need to make sure that there are real consequences for those who are engaging in reckless and foolish behavior in downtown Kansas City and all around our community.’
Lucas said he had not seen the latest shocking videos to emerge of chaos on Southwest Blvd — footage of a rider popping a wheelie and speeding when he hit the walker, who was trying to cross the street.
The mayor has faced criticism for ignoring business owners when they report their concerns about crime and how their eateries are suffering to their top local official.
Lucas he has spoken with David Lopez, the general manager at Manny’s Mexican Restaurant — one of the downtown restaurateurs who has complained that diners are too scared to go out for a meal, and that businesses are suffering.
‘I have great confidence in the city being able to handle this moment and many others,’ said the mayor, who lives in a four-bedroom, $500,000 home.
‘I know other American cities are confronting at these traffic issues, street racing and beyond, I think we need serious enforcement for all of them, and I think that’s what we will continue to see.’
He added that Kansas City police was seeing its largest recruitment drive ‘in over a decade,’ which he said would help address the problem.
But Mark Anthony Jones, chairman of a district Republican committee, slammed Lucas, saying the mayor had championed soft-on-crime polices since the George Floyd race riots erupted in early 2020.
‘He wants to blame the police, but the reason the police can’t seem to get a handle on this is because everything that they do, they get their hands slapped by the mayor,’ Jones told The Daily Mail.
Jones lives in downtown Kansas City and says he and his neighbors are regularly disturbed by noisy ATVs and other vehicles racing in the lawless streets in the middle of the night.
‘People aren’t wanting to go out after dark because you might get shot,’ he said.
‘In my own street at 3am in the morning, somebody will be shooting. That kind of stuff is normal here.’
Sean Smith, a Republican legislator for Jackson County, added that Lucas is struggling against long-term Kansas City problems of crime and poverty, and he ‘has a lot on his plate’ thanks to a crisis in City Hall.
City manager Brian Platt, who led efforts to improve traffic safety, was fired last month for retaliating against a whistleblower who’d complained that he directed employees to lie to the media.
Funding for Kansas City police is determined by the state and has been subject to years-long controversy. City officials tried to get more control over police resources amid the Floyd-era protests, but faced opposition from state Republicans.
Missourians voted last year to require Kansas City to direct at least 25 percent of its budget to police, compared to 20 percent previously.
Kansas City business owners have been complaining about lawlessness for weeks.
Frustrated business owners and locals are weighing whether to abandon downtown altogether, blaming the Dem-run city’s leadership and law enforcement for failing to curb the chaos and restore a sense of safety.
‘This isn’t a race issue, this isn’t a political issue, this is a safety issue,’ Lopez, a local business owner, told Fox News, noting how chaos right outside is a constant occurrence, posing extreme danger for the surrounding community.
‘I feel as though this city is about unsafe as it’s been since my family has been at 207 Southwest Boulevard, and that’s 45 years this September,’ he added.
‘When things out of your control start to chip away at the very foundation of what you’ve done for four generations, it hurts.’
Not only is the community feeling the impact as they return to the safety of their own homes by nightfall, but long-standing local businesses are bearing the brunt – watching foot traffic vanish and revenue slip away.
‘People are going to leave – that’s it,’ Lopez, the general manager at Manny’s Mexican Restaurant, added to the outlet. Mayor Lucas has faced growing anger over the mounting chaos.
‘At 8pm on a Saturday, we used to be getting our third turn, but now at 8pm, I cut three serves, a bartender and three kitchen staff,’ he continued.
Bradley Gilmore, owner of Lula’s Southern Cookhouse, agreed, explaining how he’s personally watched crime rise and police presence disappear right outside his business.
While he once supported downtown revitalization efforts, such as the 670 Park and downtown baseball, his support – like the city’s police – is quickly fading.
‘It’s incredibly disappointing to witness the continued lack of police presence and response in our neighborhood,’ Gilmore told Fox News.
‘It’s becoming increasingly difficult to back these large-scale projects when the basic needs of safety and accessibility are being ignored.’
Last month, the issue was thrust even further into public view when a reckless ATV rider slammed into a police officer in downtown Kansas City, leaving the cop briefly hospitalized with severe head injuries, The Kansas City Star reported.
At around 7pm on April 12, officers near Main Street allegedly spotted a group of illegal, off-road motorbikes and ATVs driving chaotically through the downtown city streets, performing dangerous stunts as they rode.
An officer attempted to haul a tire deflation device at the vehicle, with the ultimate goal of apprehending the driver once the ATV was stationary.
However, the driver reversed, popped the ATV into a wheelie, and lifted its front tires off the ground – striking the officer in the process – before driving over him and fleeing the scene, The Kansas City Star reported.
Kendall Coleman, 27, was eventually arrested and charged with first-degree assault, armed criminal action and aggravated fleeing a stop or detention, according to KSHB News.
Marc Coleman, Kendall’s 49-year-old father, was also arrested after the incident on a hindering prosecution charge.
According to court documents obtained by KSHB, Marc allegedly drove his son to Colorado Springs after the incident – an apparent attempt to help him evade law enforcement.
Mayor Lucas released a statement after the purposeful crash, which said: ‘Last night, a reckless ATV driver caused injuries to a Kansas City police officer, mayhem on our streets, and continued to display the lawlessness that too many dirt bike, stunt drivers, ATV users, racers and others display on streets in dense areas of our city’.
‘Vehicles are not toys and the streets are now playgrounds for lawlessness,’ he added, according to The Kansas City Star.
‘All have a right to enjoy our city uninterrupted by those whose actions bring harm to others.’
Despite the statement, many locals in the area feel that both city leadership and police officers are continuously failing to do their due diligence in addressing the ongoing issue.
Mayor Lucas had publicly encouraged residents to reach out with their concerns, yet many – including Gilmore – report never receiving a response.
Now, Gilmore fears the Crossroads could easily regress into what it once was – a ghost town, abandoned and forgotten.
Although some safety measures have been implemented, wary locals argue that they’ve never been sufficient.
Across the street from Tom’s Town Distilling Co., a downtown speaker repeatedly broadcasts an eerie four words: ‘You Are Under Surveillance’.
‘It does the opposite of making people feel safe when they are venturing around the Crossroads,’ Tony Pulford, marketing coordinator at Tom’s Town, told Fox News.
‘Safety is an ongoing concern – we want that… but I think there are better ways to do that.’
For many, if drastic action isn’t taken soon, the risks are simply too great to continue living in downtown Kansas City.
‘If I feel like I can’t protect the people that I love and care for – and the people that I value, especially the customers that walk through my doors – I’m out,’ Lopez told Fox News.
The Kansas City Police Department has since announced a boost in active patrols in entertainment districts, along with a crack down on illegal street racing, sideshows and ATV activity, promising stricter punishments including arrests, tickets and tows.