Jay-Z’s Staff Roc—the “philanthropic and social justice division” of the mogul’s Roc Nation leisure firm—is combating for justice in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas. Per NBC Information, the corporate simply filed a swimsuit in opposition to the Kansas Metropolis, Kansas Police Division (KCKPD) and the Unified Authorities of Wyandotte County/Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, for failing to “well timed produce” regulation enforcement information regarding decade-long allegations of police brutality and misconduct.
“For many years, communities in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas—significantly minority and immigrant communities—have been subjected to an alarming sample of abuse and different critical misconduct by the KCKPD,” Staff Roc’s swimsuit reads. “Moderately than selling a tradition of transparency and accountability, the KCKPD has an extended historical past of turning a blind eye to (at finest) and even overlaying up (if not worse) abusive and/or corrupt conduct by its officers.”
The swimsuit goes on to say that the 2 organizations “stonewalled” Staff Roc for almost a yr, even after they paid $2,200 to entry the paperwork below the Kansas Open Information Act. The submitting does say the corporate was given almost 225 paperwork, however most of them include low-stakes data like officer shifts and assignments. None of them have been associated to “any criticism or investigation into even a single occasion of misconduct by any member of the KCKPD” as requested, the swimsuit alleges.
Whereas the state’s public information regulation does permit that sure paperwork could also be held from evaluation, Staff Roc alleges that their request was denied in “broad, undifferentiated strokes” that “failed to differentiate between information regarding pending and closed investigations and did not acknowledge that just about all reputable privateness issues might be resolved via redactions.”
Per NBC, Staff Roc started placing stress on the KCKPD after studying that the FBI had been investigating allegations of police misconduct within the metropolis for years, however precise motion and prosecution was uncommon. In 2022, the group took out a full web page advert calling for an investigation in The Washington Submit, and their legal professional wrote a letter to the Justice Division alleging {that a} “blue wall of silence” had allowed the police division’s crimes to go unreported for many years.
“When good religion efforts are met with unhealthy religion ways, the combat for transparency continues in courtroom. Fact deserves no much less. The individuals of Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, deserve no much less,” Staff Roc declared in a press release concerning the swimsuit on their web site. Managing director Dania Diaz additionally added to NBC, “This submitting is as a result of human beings with badges have betrayed the general public’s belief… That kind of habits should be held to a regular.”
