Kansas City Mayor speaks out on the shooting of Ralph Yarl
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday.
They discussed the shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who was shot by a homeowner after he went to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers, and what this meant to him and the city.
"Well, to me it says several things...I think that actually it is this culture of fear and paranoia that's drummed up by some, including politicians, who mentioned it almost in a way as if it's an excuse for this type of action. This was in the safest neighborhood of Kansas City or one of our safest neighborhoods, and this was a man who, in his statement to the police said, I was scared of this, in essence, large Black person outside of his door. He thought the child was six feet tall. He was only five-eight. He thought he was a threat. He was on the other side of two locked doors. This is the sort of thing that happens when you have this culture of paranoia and fear that's being drummed up by politicians and some in the media. And of course, this fetishization, I've said before, of guns, more stand your ground laws, more laws that say you should use your gun and have it absolutely everywhere," Lucas spoke.
When asked if the situation complicates things when President Biden gets involved, Lucas said this:
"It absolutely does not complicate anything when the president gets involved. First of all, this was a news story, an incident, a situation that had the attention of the country long before President Biden called and actually did the just humane thing and gave best wishes to a boy who had just been shot twice...The facts of this case were astonishing in and of themselves, and had the president never said a word, there would still be lots of attention."
