Kansas City, MIssouri – In yet another act of state violence against poor and unhoused communities, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) and Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) are under sharp criticism by wide swathes of the community for their continued campaign of removing public benches from bus stops.
Last fall, Hyperstition Collective hosted a fundraising event titled “Bench Please” where proceeds were donated to Sunrise Movement KC and their causes. While KCATA claims to not have removed any benches in the last year, community members are claiming otherwise.
“Community members raised funds to build benches in areas close to the Kansas City Core,” says Sunrise Movement leader Alexandria Paul. “and KCPD has been tearing those benches up even though the people have come in and said we need these benches.”
According to KSHB, KCATA said the last time it removed benches was more than a year ago at the intersection of 12th and Grand and they removed the bench at 39th and Broadway nearly two years ago. But this claim is disputed by bus riders and Sunrise KC who took photos showing where benches are now missing, and were recently removed.
The reasons behind these bench removals, whether last year or more recently, expose a clear pattern of discrimination against unhoused people and less able-bodied community members. KCPD claims benches are ‘prone to loitering’ and justifies their removal through ‘Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)’—sanitized language for what’s really anti-poor hostile architecture designed to exclude unhoused people from public space.
Put simply, the removal of the benches targets unhoused individuals who are often left with no other choice–due to lack of social housing and other resources–but to use the benches as a rest stop or place to sleep. KCPD weaponizes policy language such as “loitering” to impose punitive measures on an already suffering and oppressed community.
“KCATA and KCPD associate the unhoused community with crime,” says Paul, “That’s wrong. The crime is daring to have a mental breakdown in public.”
As it relates to responding to a mental health crisis, local community organization DecarcerateKC, spearheaded and recently launched the REACH program, a Pre-Arrest Diversion and alternative community response program that would divert people away from arrest.
The removal of benches is not solely a reflection of biases against individuals experiencing homelessness. Black people are the largest demographic among bus riders in Kansas city. They are the ones disproportionately affected by choices to eliminate essential amenities like benches. This act against the community is driven by a Kansas City Police Department embedded in the systemic violence against Black and impoverished individuals, whether they have housing or not.
“KCPD removing these benches from bus stops is just one way they continue a long history of violence against Black Kansas Citians.” Explains Raymond Forstater, another leader with Sunrise Movement KC, “Those are tactics straight out of Jim Crow, criminalizing the act of being in public while Black.”
This struggle over public benches exemplifies why police and carceral responses fail to address community needs. While KCPD wastes resources destroying public infrastructure, community-led initiatives like DecarcerateKC’s REACH program show how investment in care—not cops—creates genuine public safety. The contrast couldn’t be clearer: police destroy community resources while community members build them up.
Further, KCATA’s removal of the benches is in direct contradiction of what the community has asked for and blatantly undermines the efforts community members put forth to care for one another.
Yet, promisingly, the community’s persistent efforts to rebuild these benches represents a direct challenge to the state’s attempt to criminalize poverty and control public space. Through mutual aid and direct action, community members are demonstrating that real public safety comes from caring for one another, not from police surveillance and hostile architecture.
“Community members are putting the benches back,” says Paul, “and that’s a beautiful thing. It’s symbolic of beautiful community empowerment.”
