Free Republic

On Thursday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) said that if you don’t have metal detectors, “then how can we ever fully be safe in a city, a state, and, perhaps, a country where we know that people are freely walking around with AR-15s, with modified handguns with switches, with any number of issues, or frankly, even just your old classic revolver?” And “If we know that one can act with impunity with that, then it’s hard to say we’ll ever be fully as safe as I think we’d like to idealize ourselves to...

Kansas City, Mo. Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) said early Wednesday that the recent shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl “has everything to do with race.” Police say Yarl was shot twice by Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white homeowner, after the Black teenager accidentally went to the wrong address to pick up his younger brothers. “This defendant, in the probable cause statement, is indicated to have said that he was afraid of Ralph because he is a tall, Black man,” Lucas told “CNN This Morning” on Wednesday. “He thought he was in some way menacing or scary. I don’t think that was...

A conservative law firm is calling a new order in Kansas City, Missouri, "Nazi-like" for requiring churches to "surveil, track, and spy" on anyone who attends an in-person service. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas issued the 10/10/10 rule in effect May 5, ordering that nonessential businesses, like churches, can have 10 people inside and 50 people outside as long as they practice social distancing. They also must record the information of anyone who spends more than 10 minutes inside. In addition, nonessential businesses can operate at 10 percent maximum capacity. The order states that by recording names and contact information,...

A Kansas City phased reopening guideline requiring churches to keep “lists” of attendees, has alarmed many who see it as an infringement on religious liberty and privacy. In the policy issued by Mayor Quinton Lucas, houses of worship are treated with the same restrictions as “non-essential” businesses in terms of keeping records of who attends a service, or even anyone who enters the building. “Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined Nazi-like measures designed to surveil, track and spy upon what was once a FREE American people,” Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver said. “Yet that is exactly what...

Governors and mayors across the nation have claimed that their emergency powers allow them to ban large groups during the coronavirus pandemic. They don't want groups gathering in malls, movie theaters or even churches, despite the constitutional protection of religious rights. Now one official is moving into extreme territory, demanding churches provide him with the names, addresses and telephone numbers of anyone who shows up to worship. The move by Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, already is attracting the attention of Liberty Counsel, which has been defending churches amid the coronavirus lockdowns. Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver...