Northeast News
January 21, 2015

Dear Editor,

This is my fourth or fifth letter to the Northeast News over the years concerning the KCPD and their lack of responsibility to our neighborhood. I could write this same letter every week it seems. As a lifelong resident of this area, I have seen the KCPD’s complete lack of interest in the well being of Notheast Kansas City and its residents. Crime continues on here unchecked…unless the department can make money from it. Case in point, a couple of years back, I was pulled over near Ninth and Van Brunt and given a ticket because the traffic cop who stopped me said I ran through a four-way stop. Not true. I did stop for a few seconds and as nobody was at any of the stops there, I went on my way. The officer was rude to me and when I told him I didn’t run right through the stop as he implied, he started to get angry and asked if I was going to argue with him. How could I? I have seen over the years what police officers do to those who don’t agree with them or comply to their aggressive approach. So, I, who work hard every day and have not been without a job for more than three months since I was 13 (I am middle-aged now) , am meant to be treated as a criminal and embarrassed publicly, as cars drive by and see a traffic cop berating for for something I didn’t do.

Cut to this New Year’s Eve. At the stroke of midnight, the rude and unconscionable neighbors across the street from me pulled out their guns. The first dozen or so shots went whizzing by my house and I could hear bullets pinging off of things. Trees? Houses? PEOPLE?? I opened my door, probably unwisely, and yelled over there. The man with the gun ran inside, only to appear out another door minutes later. This time with a shotgun! He pointed it over yet another neighbor’s house and began blasting another dozen rounds into the air. This time, pellets from those blasts hit my house, as well as my neighbors. I called 911 at this point, knowing full well that the Keystone KCPD would do little to help me, and boy, was I right. About a half hour after calling 911 (the KCPD will ALWAYS wait until the smoke clears before responding) three officers show up and speak to me. I explained what happened and one officer told that what I was hearing possibly could have come as far away as from I-70! THIS is how the KCPD regards the intelligence of Northeast residents. I told him that I didn’t imagine the shotgun blasts that sounded as loud as a cannon just across the street from me. I saw and heard the shots quite clearly.

So what do these three officers do at this point, after I told them that the neighbor’s gun fire had hit my house? Absolutely NOTHING. One officer told me that “This is going on all over the city, so we are going to go ahead get back in the car and take cover.” WOW…My tax dollars pay the KCPD to “Protect and Serve” and although I can be treated like a criminal for not stopping long enough in my car for a traffic cop’s approval, when I do call into 911 when bullets are flying off of my house, the brave boys in blue tell me they are going to “take cover.” Sorry, but I just can’t win with this incompetent bunch. They try to convince us that crime is going down, and if they don’t respond to it, OF COURSE the crime rate is going to drop. So, the point I have made here in the letters section, ad nauseum, is that the KCPD not only do NOT care about the residents here in Northeast KC, as they let graffiti go unpunished and ignore ANYTHING that might bring on paper work, there is also an underlying cowardice that is both obvious and alarming. If a KC cop thinks any kind of danger is imminent, they will not respond until the situation has long ended. Either that, or they will go and “take cover.” Good to know that this lack of service is what I can expect from the KCPD and I’ll bet I will be writing this same letter a decade from now to no apparent avail.

Keith Koenig

Northeast Kansas City