Arrested for Speaking Out against the Downtown Stadium…
Darrell Miller was not the leader of any protesting work group. He was simply a citizen standing with his coworkers, present last Tuesday at the Council Meeting where their concerns were being represented. He had no idea that speaking a few honest words would end with him being mishandled and harmed. Civil rights leaders and pastors and friends of Darrell stand tomorrow with Darrell to say enough! Darrell did not come to be on the evening news. He did not come to be humiliated. He did not come to be misrepresented. He came because he cared. Last Tuesday, his mayor and his council failed him. Intentionally or not, the harm occurred — and it occurred in full public view. What made it worse was how quickly some local news outlets twisted the moment into a story of a “workforce leader gone rogue,” when in truth Darrell was a blue-collar citizen trying to be heard.
Those of us who will stand in the city square tomorrow are not agitators. We are the children and grandchildren of broken promises — promises stretching back to 1966, when Kansas City’s elite civic titans feared losing the Chiefs after already losing the Major League Baseball Athletics to Oakland for the 1968 baseball season. In that moment, millions of dollars suddenly appeared for the Truman Sports Complex. Mayor Ilus Davis, Joyce Hall, Eliot Berkowitz, Bill Demarus, Lamar Hunt, and roughly two dozen other leaders secured Governor Hearnes’ signature. But they never invested in the future of Eastern Jackson County, nor in the neighborhoods east of Troost, nor in the 3rd and 5th Districts.
Our sixty-year-old check from LBJ’s Model Cities bounced long ago for better communities east of Troost Ave. Since then, the school district has been gutted. Split the city with Highway 71. The stability once anchored by Municipal Stadium off Brooklyn vanished. And generation after generation has been told to wait, to be patient, to accept less.
I understand the message often sent to people like me: “Sit down, preacher. Mind your own business.” And I was doing exactly that — until you mishandled Darrell Miller.
What makes this moment even more painful is that, with a Black mayor and a diverse council, a blue-collar Black citizen was still mistreated. The mayor’s interview afterward carried on as though nothing had happened. And now, after speaking with at least one councilmember, I hear that there may be quiet conversations happening behind the scenes. But this did not happen behind the scenes. It happened in public. It was recorded. And the recording shows a citizen — who happened to be a Black man — being treated as though he went rogue.
Brook Sherman misspoke about employment opportunities, suggesting jobs that do not yet exist. Meanwhile, the city is preparing to serve taxpayers a $1-billion sandwich and “hold the lettuce” any foreseeable new opportunities of for real jobs like industrial, manufacturing or logistics and distribution. And in that same meeting, nearly six security personnel moved toward Darrell Miller without protocol, without decency, and without the basic respect of escorting him out like a human being. Instead, they wrestled him out like he was a thug.
That is a failure — from the mayor, to the council, to the supervisor of security.
And although we do not speak for his legal counsel, any criminal charges improperly placed upon him should be dropped. A public apology is necessary. And after tomorrow’s press conference, we ask for a meeting with you, Mayor, to discuss what will be done about the staff who abused their authority and your process of future removals of citizens.
Today, we stand together. Today, we speak together. Today, we demand justice.
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MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2026, 12:30PM, ILUS W. DAVIS PARK SOUTHSIDESTEPS FACING THE CITY HALL, DOWNTOWN KCMO
CONTACT: BISHOP FRANK DOUGLAS, JR.
