Kansas City, we have to make sure the next shooting like Ralph Yarl’s never happens

The shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl has thrust Kansas City into the national spotlight, sparked protests and generated anger and outrage. As a product of this community, I hope this tragic incident will also lead us to reflect more deeply about the policies and systemic issues that contributed to this story.

I’m stirred to ask questions: What does this story say about us as a community? What changes are needed, in our hearts and minds as well as our policies?

Ralph’s story began with an ordinary act: He knocked on a door. He made a simple mistake that most of us will make sooner or later — knocking on the wrong door, trying to open the wrong car door, showing up at the wrong apartment.

My colleague Geoff Jolley tells me he has knocked on thousands of doors over the years in the effort to get out the vote. In almost every case, he was a stranger — someone the person on the other side of the door didn’t recognize.

Geoff says: “When you canvas for a political candidate or as part of a community outreach, people usually aren’t expecting you. Often, they don’t want to see you, and they will be irate or rude. That’s part of the job.” Thankfully, Geoff has never been met with violence of any kind. But Geoff, who is white, doesn’t look like me or Ralph, who are Black.

Ralph’s story raises questions about belonging in our communities. If Black people and people of color cannot do simple things such as pick up their siblings from a play date in our own neighborhoods, in our own city, or even in our own country, is this really our community? What does it mean when members of minority populations live with the possibility that a simple mistake could land us in the hospital or even cost our lives?

As a Black mother of two young children, Ralph’s story also inspires fear for my children’s future. When will Black children, teens and adults be able to live without the threat of gun violence as we simply go about our daily lives? When will a child’s innocent mistake no longer turn into a matter of life and death?

At Local Initiatives Support Corporation Greater Kansas City, we have the privilege of witnessing the incredible work that young people of color are doing in our communities. These change agents strive to break down systemic barriers — the same systemic barriers that led someone to fear for his life, so much that he felt violence was necessary, apparently just because the person on the other side of the door had a darker complexion.

Ralph’s story also leads us to reflect on other young men who were victims of gun violence and did not survive. In the last few months, we’ve lost 18-year-old Ricardo Apodaca, 17-year-old Darrell Weldon, 16-year-old Devohn Dudley-Reese and 18-year-old Jazion Sanders, to name just a few. These losses are not only a source of heartbreak and grief for their families. They represent a loss for the entire community. We have all lost whatever those young men might have contributed to society in the future.

Unlike Ralph’s shooting, the circumstances surrounding these young men’s deaths did not have overt racial overtones. But I believe systemic racism was a factor. In economically sound communities, young men such as these aren’t gunned down on their own front lawns. Those are the kind of circumstances we at LISC strive to improve, through creating systems changes and transforming the neighborhoods we serve.

Having spent 15 years working for the U.S. House of Representatives in the office of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, Ralph’s story is another reminder of the need to create changes in our domestic policies. Several stories have appeared in the news around the country when someone was shot for making an innocent mistake: pulling into the wrong driveway, trying to open the door of the wrong car. Many other similar shootings have occurred without attracting the same level of media attention.

In some of these cases, the people pulling the trigger weren’t even charged because they were protected by self-defense laws. But studies suggest that these laws have few benefits overall, and may even discriminate against Black people and people of color. As The New York Times reported, “Shootings in which white people shot Black people were nearly three times as likely to be found ‘justified’ compared with cases where white people shot other white people.” The story cited the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates for stronger gun laws.

Do we really want to live in a community where people shoot first and ask questions later? Will we continue to allow fear-mongering news outlets to overstate the danger of crime? Will we stand by while politicians and gun manufacturers to “portray the suburban front door as a fortified barrier against a violent world,” in The Times’ words?

Thankfully, Ralph survived his shooting. He had to go to three other homes before he could get help, but someone finally stepped up to help him get medical treatment. I hope and pray that this young man will go on to recover fully.

But as the headlines fade and the next tragic news story grabs our attention, I pray that we won’t forget about Ralph Yarl: a young man shot for making the simple mistake of knocking on the wrong door. I hope his story will spur us to continue to ask ourselves about how that could’ve happened, and how we can create a community where that doesn’t happen in the future.

Holly Long is development officer at Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit which focuses on equitable and inclusive solutions for affordable housing, economic development, financial stability, health, and safety in greater Kansas City. LISC does not lobby.