Within this open letter, we ask Prairie Village residents to affirm support for Black Lives Matter and necessary, peaceful anti-racist protests within our city. Given the recent arrests of nonviolent protesters in Overland Park, we declare solidarity with and protection for peaceful protests within our city, and acknowledge Americans' essential Constitutional right to nonviolent public demonstration. We also acknowledge the harmful, lingering effects of historic redlining, racist deed convenants, and racial segregation within our community, and we hope to address this shameful part of our collective past with anti-racist action and education.

We stand with protesters who bring awareness to racial injustice, structural oppression, and police brutality in this country. We acknowledge the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless other Black Americans as precipitating events to national protests, as well as the continuation a larger pattern of violence, racism, oppression that dates back over 400 years to the enslavement of Black people. We commit ourselves to defending the rights of Black Americans and their allies to use public spaces to spread awareness and call our citizens to concrete, realizable, anti-racist action; we understand and support the need for anti-racist reform and community action to ensure protection and equity for Black Americans.

We express gratitude to the Prairie Village Police Department and Chief Schwartzkopf for maintaining a low-touch, peaceful protest originating at Weltner Park on July 18th, 2020. This response to peaceful protesting is laudable, and should be the standard for police response to protests across the city and county, including within both Kansas and Missouri. The Prairie Village Police Department generally, and Chief Schwartzkopf specifically, have demonstrated humanity and thoughtfulness in their care and compassion for protesters and citizens alike, and we hope this will be used as an instructive example for all of our neighboring cities and communities. We call upon each of these neighboring cities and communities to follow by example and follow Prairie Village's justice-minded lead in not unnecessarily employing aggressive policing, riot gear, and other harmful tactics in the context of nonviolent protests.

We also commit ourselves to using our privilege as citizens of this city to facilitate collaboration and civility between–and offer mutual protection for–protesters, citizens, and police. As of July 30th, 2020, Prairie Village residents, city councilpersons, protest organizers, and PVPD have engaged in constructive dialogue around maintaining peace and protection for all parties at the upcoming August 1st protest at Welter Park. It is our hope that the result will be a peaceful, fruitful, community-minded protest that calls upon us all to protect our fellow citizens, and especially those of us who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color, and whose voices need to be heard.

Black Lives Matter.