Playing basketball with the wrong set of people or frequenting the wrong gas station could land you on a Wichita Police Department list of gang members. Community activists say police make snap judgements that label people as gangsters without any criminal record. That’s about to change. Judge Eric Melgren, chief judge of the U.S. District […]
gang list
Posted inLocal Government, Watchdog
In Wichita, a bad headlight can lead to jail
How can a traffic ticket ruin a life? A traffic ticket for something as simple as a broken headlight or a missing taillight can snowball into a jail sentence in Kansas for low-income people who can’t afford car repairs or fines. And according to some activists and state representatives, it’s more likely to happen to […]
Posted inWichitans You Should Know
Defying a “gang list” label to find his voice and lend it to others
There is the life you are born to — and the life you create. Desmond Bryant-White is creating his chosen life through words: written words and spoken words, filling books and covering whiteboards. Words rising out of pain, struggle and injustice, uttered at poetry slams, press conferences and policy panels. And now leaders of Wichita’s […]
Posted inWatchdog
3,000 people are on Wichita’s Gang List. Some listed don’t know they’re on it.
Update: A federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a gang list maintained by the Wichita Police Department will continue, though a judge dismissed three of its seven counts. The lawsuit, filed by Progeny, Kansas Appleseed and the ACLU in April 2021 on behalf of four Black men in Wichita, alleges that the gang list targets […]