If you care about the safety of POC students on campus, please sign the petition!

On Friday, UMKC announced that they have hired a new chief of UMKC campus police, Daniel Graves. In an email to the student body, it was stated that Graves “plans to focus on supporting a high-performing team that promotes a culture of integrity” but integrity is clearly not a trait that Graves values or possesses. 

In 2021, Daniel Graves wrote a letter in support of Eric DeValkenaere, who was convicted of killing Cameron Lamb, an unarmed Black man, while responding to a traffic incident. The letter downplays DeValkenaere’s role in the murder of Cameron Lamb, describing DeValkenaere as a “family man” who would never “intentionally hurt someone unprovoked or with malice” and requesting that DeValkenaere’s sentencing be postponed until after an appeal.

This letter was not written with integrity. This letter should never have been written at all. And Daniel Graves should never have been hired. If Graves is willing to advocate for officers who commit racially charged acts of police brutality, what does that say about how far he would be willing to go to excuse the actions of campus police officers if they end up harming students? What does it say about the UMKC administration that they are willing to have a murder apologist on their staff? It reaffirms what we’ve known for a long time— UMKC does not care about the safety of their students.