KANSAS CITY, Mo. — They had no specific agenda other than to listen.
Missouri’s U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt and U.S. Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver heard from local community leaders Tuesday who spoke on racial equality and ideas for jump starting struggling businesses.
“You can’t just sit and talk about it,” said Nia Richardson with KC BizCare, which helps small businesses with every need, including the biggest one.
“Money, as always. They can’t do anything without the capital.”
Richardson told the two Congressmen that metro businesses are dying. Many have been forced to shut down during the pandemic and have yet to recover their losses.
“Being the daughter of an entrepreneur, it’s everything,” Richardson said. “It’s how we build our community. It’s how we stay connected. It’s employment.”
Blunt, a Republican, and Cleaver, a Democrat, also heard from many concerned voices on the topic of police brutality in the wake of shootings like the one involving Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Both are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to reinstate tougher checks on police agencies with histories of brutality. Cleaver said the revitalization of Ferguson, Missouri, where a community revolted against police in 2014, offers clues as to how friction between factions can be soothed.
“The community back then, 72% African-American, one person on the city council, nobody on the municipal government. All of that has changed dramatically,” Cleaver said. “You don’t hear anything about Ferguson because its a completely different community.”
“Most people in law enforcement are doing everything they can to do the right thing, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have things happen you wouldn’t want to happen, or that some departments don’t have greater problems than others,” Blunt said. “I think that’s an area where the federal government can come in.”
Blunt said the handful of times federal officers have intervened in Missouri have been a success.
