An account of the evening of April 10 on the Plaza, written from the perspective of a first-hand witness, defending those whose voices were not heard that night, and respectfully questioning the severe measures of some of the police officers    

A large gathering of teenagers on the Country Club Plaza April 10 caused dozens of police officers to show up on the scene, using pepper spray to disperse the “rowdy” crowds.

We decided to finish our night at Winstead’s. Our ears ringing, sweat still shining on our faces and Julian Casablancas’s lyrics still reverberating around our brains, we scarfed down french fries and milkshakes after the concert, April 10.

Before we had ordered our food, our waitress explained to us that Winstead’s had just began enforcing a new rule. After dark, minors had to pay in advance, because a lot of people started walking out on their checks at the fairly casual restaurant. “But I think I recognize some of you guys when I’ve waited on you before, so you don’t have to worry about it,” she had told us.

Well into our meal, at about 11 p.m., we noticed the waitresses, bus-boys and even what looked like to be the manager, scrambling and running around.

“Are you going to order anything?” the manager demanded of about three teenagers who had just entered the restaurant and were talking to some of their friends who were sitting at a table.

The manager seemed to be panicing, saying things like “I am not going to play this game” when she would pass our table.

We had begun to notice a fairly large group of teenagers congregating outside, and occasionally some coming inside and sitting down. “Alright, I’m locking the doors!” the manager had threatened.

Through the window’s blinds, I saw some people outside running away from Winstead’s.

I was thoroughly confused at this point. What was going on? Why is the Winstead’s manager so upset? What’s going on outside?

Before long, police cars started showing up one by one.

Our waitress came over to our table and gave us our checks. When we asked her what was going on, she told us that she was “freaking out. Apparently some of them have…” she pointed her index fingers and lifted her thumbs, making guns with her hands.

As the staff continued to scramble around us, a group of teens behind us asked for the manager. “We’ve been sitting here for 20 minutes and haven’t been waited on,” one boy from the table said. The manager eventually told the table to leave, explaining that “the kitchen is closed.”

After a delayed paying process, we eventually left the fast food restaurant. When we walked out of the doors, we were surprised to see police tape zig-zagging through the Winstead’s parking lot. My parked car was contained within the police tape. Despite the waitress’s rumors that “somebody got shot,” I saw no stretcher, no injured person, and not even an ambulance. All I saw were cop cars and police tape, which seemed totally harmless to me. I slipped under the tape and began to walk toward my car.

“Hey!” one policeman yelled towards me. “That’s my car,” I said. He told me to go back on the other side of the tape. When I argued with him a little more, he told me my alternatives: “You can get your car if you want to get your DNA tested in the crime scene, or if you want to go to jail with me, it’s your choice.”

So, crossing the tape was probably not my best idea that night. But I had no idea what the tape was there for, and what exactly the crime even was.

I ended up having to wait for the “crime scene” evidence people to come around. After half an hour of sitting in the parking lot with my friends, having the “ghetto bird” (police helicopter) circling above us, futilely shining the light around the parking lot, I grew impatient, and finally accepted my friends’ offer to drive me home. I would pick up my car the following day.

Today, the day after that confusing night of April 10, I read the paper to see what really happened.

According to the Kansas City Star, “the Country Club Plaza area was awash with pepper spray Saturday night as police struggled to disperse a rowdy gathering of hundreds of young people.” One person was reported having a serious head injury, however the cause of the injury is unknown.

“Several dozen police officers spent much of the evening attempting to disperse large crowds ‘” totaling an estimated 500 to 1,000 people ‘” that gathered at various spots in the shopping district.”

However, one witness to several policemen spraying pepper spray on a group of these youths said that “he hadn’t witnessed them misbehaving when a police car pulled up and officers told them to ‘move on’ before unleashing a blast of the chemical spray.”

There were no guns. No violence that I saw. Just a large group of black teenagers, who apparently were threatening the older, white shoppers and eaters at the plaza that night.

After years of the Plaza’s attempts to rid the ritzy shopping district of black youths, it has resulted in an unpleasant backlash.

This is just my opinion, from my point of view, as a first hand witness to the happenings of Saturday night: Why should a large group of [black] teenagers threaten merchants and consumers on the Plaza when there are constantly large groups of white teenagers all throughout the Plaza causing ruckus and being “rowdy” (as the Star article describes these teens from that night)? As for the police officers unleashing pepper spray on the otherwise innocent group of teenagers walking the streets, I think that is definitely a case of racial profiling. Because my friends and I were all white, we were treated with respect at Winstead’s during the affair, and even our waitress came over to “comfort” us and see if we felt uncomfortable or in danger.

The only time I felt personally threatened was when the police officer threatened to take me to jail.

I felt that the response and the reactions of many were way out of line and exaggerated.  Police officers did not have to use large cans of pepper spray to disperse the “unruly” crowds, and there certainly did not have to be as many police officers as there were present that night.

Listen to the teens’ accounts here.

Read a more detailed report of what happened that night here.

Watch a video of coverage from NBC Action News.