A year before it hosts the FIFA World Cup, Kansas City’s crime problem has gained international notoriety with a London newspaper calling downtown a “Mad Max-style hellhole” where residents are “afraid to step outside after dark.”

The Daily Mail reported May 7 the city’s Missouri side is suffering from “surging crime and a diminishing police presence” have led the city to “become a hotspot for illegal street racing and reckless ATV and dirt bike riders tearing through the neighborhoods – chaos that escalated last month when a police officer was hit by an ATV. …

“Now, 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.”

The London newspaper points to a report by Fox4 Kansas City indicating “downtown business owners say they’re at a breaking point.”

“This isn’t a race issue, this isn’t a political issue, this is a safety issue,” the local TV station quoted Manny’s Mexican Restaurant General Manager David Lopez.

“I feel as though this city is about as unsafe as it’s been since my family has been at 207 Southwest Boulevard and that’s 45 years this September.”

“Very disappointing,” 1st District Councilman Nathan Willett tells The Heartlander. “But not surprising that it became more of a bigger story.”

Chaos, business owner says

Fox4 explains:

“Illegal street racing, ATVs and dirt bikes tearing through neighborhoods – even an officer intentionally run over by … an ATV just mere weeks ago. Chaos, Lopez says, is constant.

“When things out of your control start to chip away at the very foundation of what you’ve done for four generations, it hurts,” he told the station.

“He’s not alone,” Fox4 writes. “Business owners throughout downtown say they feel abandoned by city leadership and police and the effects are hitting more than just morale – they’re cutting into revenue.

“People are going to leave – that’s it,” Lopez told the station. “At 8:00 on a Saturday, we used to be getting our third turn, now at 8:00 I cut three servers, a bartender, and three kitchen staff.”

“I think what you’re seeing right now are the results of leadership from previous years,” Councilman Willett says. “For far too long we’ve known we needed a jail in the city and Council has chosen not to act. Finally, we have a plan to go forward with one, but it will take another couple of years.

“The police have been asking for additional resources. And they’ve been asking for support on this. …

“This is an area where you have a lot of patrons. You have a lot of business owners, you have a lot of people who come in and visit our city and they stay in the downtown area. And when you have events like this happening, it’s going to hurt people wanting to invest in our city and wanting to come and stay, especially in the downtown area.”

Indeed, another downtown restaurateur told Fox4 he’d “seen crime rise and police presence vanish,” the station reports.

“It’s incredibly disappointing to witness the continued lack of police presence and response in our neighborhood,” Bradley Gilmore, owner of Lula’s Southern Cookhouse, told the outlet. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to back these large-scale projects when the basic needs of safety and accessibility are being ignored.”

The situation certainly isn’t being ignored by the international media.

ATV pops wheelie onto officer

The city’s international disrepute comes after an ATV driver allegedly ran over a police officer who was attempting to stop several of the vehicles at Truman Road and Main Street April 12. Reports say Kendall Coleman, 27, is charged with first-degree assault, armed criminal action, and aggravated fleeing a stop or detention.

“Court documents,” reports Fox4, “say Coleman reversed the ATV, causing the officer to fall to the ground. While the officer was crouched down, Coleman lifted his ATV into a wheelie then dropped the front wheels of the vehicle onto the officer, running him over with all four tires before leaving the scene.

“Officers later located Coleman near 31st Street and Southwest Boulevard, but he fled again – eventually ending up on I-35 where he was traveling northbound in the southbound lanes of traffic, weaving between the lanes.”

The officer was taken to a hospital with head injuries.

Reports say the suspect’s father, Marc Coleman, 49, also is charged with hindering prosecution after driving his son to Colorado following the incident.

Mayor Quinton Lucas – who, with a majority of council members, attempted to claw back $42 million in police funding in 2021 – released a statement April 13 expressing outrage at the lawlessness.

“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.  We expect our officer to recover and pray he can return to normal service soon.

“Rest assured as the weather gets warmer, serious enforcement action from KCPD, apprehension, and felony referrals to our prosecutors will follow for all those causing fear, serious injuries, and harm even to themselves on the streets of Kansas City.

“Vehicles are not toys and the streets are not playgrounds for lawlessness. All have a right to enjoy our city uninterrupted by those whose actions bring harm to others.”

Crime, bad publicity, continues

Lucas also filed a personal lawsuit — somehow with taxpayer funds — to fight a new state law approved by both legislators and voters that requires the city to increase its minimum-mandated expenditures on policing.

Nonetheless, the city promised a crackdown on crime last year after the brazen Aug. 28 shooting death of beloved restaurateur Shaun Brady of Brady & Fox, at 63rd Street and Rockhill Road.

Meanwhile, the Country Club Plaza has deployed armed private security guards to patrol the popular outdoor shopping mall for the first time in over 30 years.

“The move comes after a series of high-profile safety concerns last summer, including illegal ATV activity, thefts, and several shootings that alarmed businesses and visitors alike,” reports KCTV5.

Recently a multi-agency operation involving Kansas City Police, the FBI, ATF, DEA and Missouri Highway Patrol led to the arrest of 96 and the confiscation of drugs and dozens of guns.

But it couldn’t prevent the bad publicity that reached across the Atlantic this past week.

“Despite the [mayor’s] 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,” The Daily Mail writes.

“Mayor Lucas had publicly encouraged residents to reach out with their concerns, yet many – including Gilmore – report never receiving a response.”

Kansas City residents have been wholly underwhelmed with the city’s response to crime in recent years, particularly with the failure of the Jackson County prosecutor’s office to press charges and win convictions.

Newly elected Prosecutor Melesa Johnson appears as if she’ll be an improvement, Willett says, though adding it remains to be seen how tough she’ll be.

“You’ve seen when new prosecutors come in and they’re not tough on crime, they don’t really have a long tenure,” Willett says. “You saw that in St. Louis. So I hope that this new prosecutor will learn lessons from weak prosecutors.

“Our city’s calling out for it. Business owners, residents, people who care about our area, even people who don’t live in Kansas City – they want Kansas City to be safe. They want crime to be stopped, and they want [authorities] to be tough.”