A few days ago, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson blamed “a bunch of criminals, thugs” for the shooting in Kansas City that killed a mother of two and injured 22 after the Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade.

“What happened yesterday with those thugs is not who we are in Missouri,” Parson, a Republican, said in an interview with host Pete Mundo on KCMO Talk Radio. “And we’re not and it’s just a shame they got center stage yesterday under an event that should have been a totally positive event.”

“You just got some absolutely, be careful what I say before I say something I’m gonna probably regret, but just a bunch of criminals, thugs out there, just killing people at an incident like that and attempting to kill all those people and created such chaos that people got hurt, being trampled,” Parson said. “I hope that prosecutors and judges and everybody understands how serious this is.”

The comments from Parson caught the mayor off guard and he took a huge issue with his use of the word “Thugs.”

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas celebrates during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII victory parade on February 14, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Amy KONTRAS / AFP)

Kansas City’s mayor, Quenton Lucas, had to speak out over those words.

“I have respect for the governor. We get along well,” Lucas told Kraske. “I disagree strongly with how he would describe that situation. I certainly do think this was criminal activity. It was lawlessness, and I think that that’s troubling. But ‘thugs’ is a dog whistle in the most classic sense.”

“I’ve seen this dog whistle time and again. There’s this kind of giant conservative theory on social media now that the reason these mug shots haven’t been shown is because the purported defendants are Black, and if it were a White defendant we would have just shown them. That is absolutely preposterous. There are protections to juveniles,” he added.

 

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said in a press conference that the 22 people injured in the shooting ranged between the ages of 8 and 47 years old, half of whom were under the age of 16. A mother of two was also killed.

Shots were fired west of Union Station near the garage. Three people, including two juveniles, were detained, and firearms were recovered. This past Friday, two juveniles were charged with crimes connected to the shooting.

Those juveniles are being detained in Jackson County’s Juvenile Detention Center “on gun-related and resisting arrest charges.”

According to a press release, it is “anticipated that additional charges are expected in the future as the investigation by the Kansas City Police Department continues.”