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  • 2024.05.17 - LTR To AG Bailey Re Harassment of Employees

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    Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas sent the following letter to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey concerning reaction to his social media posts regarding a now-deleted tweet.

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    2024.05.17 - Ltr to AG Bailey Re Harassment of Employees

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    Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas sent the following letter to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey concerning reaction to his social media posts regarding a now-deleted tweet.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    37K views2 pages

    2024.05.17 - LTR To AG Bailey Re Harassment of Employees

    Uploaded by

    KCTV5
    Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas sent the following letter to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey concerning reaction to his social media posts regarding a now-deleted tweet.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    of 2

    Letter to Andrew Bailey

    Page 1

    QUINTON D. LUCAS
    Mayor

    May 17, 2024

    Attorney General Andrew Bailey


    Missouri Attorney General’s Office
    Supreme Court Building
    207 W. High St.
    Jefferson City, MO 65102

    Re: Urgent Request to Cease Inflammatory Rhetoric and Prevent Targeting of Kansas City
    Employees

    Dear Attorney General Bailey,

    I am writing to express my deep concern and disappointment regarding your recent actions that have
    directly contributed to the online harassment and targeting of individual Kansas City government
    employees.

    Over the past two days, your office’s public statements and social media posts have criticized a tweet sent
    out by the City’s twitter account—a tweet the City quickly took down, acknowledged as wholly
    inappropriate, and for which both the City and its individual leaders, myself included, immediately
    apologized. The City has also launched a Human Resources disciplinary process, which, as our top state
    lawyer, you know is confidential during review. I respect your right to criticize the City, but your
    inflammatory rhetoric has gone beyond rational disagreements and has resulted in members of your online
    following directing vitriol, death threats, and harassment at specific Kansas City Black and female
    employees who had no involvement in the objectionable tweet.

    The violent racist rhetoric of this online harassment is galling. Pictures of female City employees with no
    involvement in the now-deleted tweet have been shared online. In one post, an employee’s street address
    has been provided next to an image of a Black person hanging from a noose. In addition to the disclosure
    of addresses and photographs of multiple women working in communications for Kansas City, our
    employees have been called “Niggers,” “whores,” and “enemies of the people,” and have been attacked

    City Hall, 414 East 12th St., Kansas City, MO 64106


    (816) 513-3500 | [email protected]
    Letter to Andrew Bailey
    Page 2

    by commenters to denounce “diversity and inclusion.” There is no place in Missouri for this type of
    rhetoric.

    The growing online rhetoric on this issue, for which you are fanning the flames, has made City employees
    targets for online hate mobs and put their personal safety at risk, including leading an employee to leave
    her home for her safety. Whatever your intent, the consequence of your statements has been a flood of
    threatening and harassing messages, calls, and posts directed at these public employees and their families.
    This is unacceptable.

    As Attorney General, your words carry great weight and influence. I urge you to consider the real-world
    impact of your rhetoric and actions, particularly as it applies to non-elected officials. Criticism of
    government statements and elected officials is appropriate, but targeting and implicitly encouraging
    harassment of individual public servants is reckless and irresponsible. The buck stops with me. Please
    leave non-elected government workers alone.

    I am requesting that you immediately cease this dangerous practice and make a public statement
    condemning the harassment and threats that City employees have received and are receiving. If you object
    to posting the mere city in which a public figure lives, then you should condemn even more strongly the
    posting of a municipal employee’s name, photo, and home address alongside racist and genuine threats of
    violence.

    The people of Kansas City and Missouri deserve leaders who will engage in good faith dialogue, not fan
    the flames of anger and hate. I hope you will join me in lowering the temperature and ensuring all public
    servants can do their jobs without fear.

    Sincerely,

    Quinton D. Lucas

    City Hall, 414 East 12th St., Kansas City, MO 64106


    (816) 513-3500 | [email protected]

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