KANSAS CITY — It was fun for Chiefs fans to imagine what would happen in February 2025 as Chris Jones led the crowd's chants for a third straight championship. Jones said (probably inebriated) that he would be back for the 2024 season, so I guess you can forgive him. Die-hard Chiefs fans dreamed of making it to the Super Bowl for the third year in a row and fourth time in five seasons.
As in 2020 and 2023, Wednesday's parade down Grand Street culminated with a rally in front of Union Station. But minutes after Travis Kelsey serenaded the audience with an off-key version of “Friends in Low Places,” chaos erupted. Another mass shooting occurred in the United States, leaving one person, Lisa Lopez, dead and more than 20 people shot dead.
Right now, Kansas City is grieving for Lopez and those injured. After three people were taken into custody, the city will soon have to deal with another issue as police investigate a motive for the shooting. Will a victory parade like this be held again?
The area in front of the historic train station is the venue for many of Kansas City's largest gatherings. The Royals celebrated their 2015 World Series victory there, and the 2023 NFL Draft was held at the very same location where the Chiefs soaked in their recent Super Bowl victory.
All four victory parades followed the same route. Players, coaches, staff and dignitaries will be transported south through the grounds downtown before heading outside to celebrate in front of thousands of people gathered in front of the Liberty Monument.
On the Monday and Tuesday after the Super Bowl, my favorite city theme was how well we did in hosting the parade. Before the start of the 2020 parade, a car entered the parade route, leading to a brief chase, but the four parades since 2015 have generally ended without any major accidents.
until now. More than 800 police officers from Kansas City and surrounding areas were in attendance Wednesday. The presence of good men and women with guns did not stop this from happening.
By all accounts, the reaction from first responders after the shooting was swift. Help was delivered to shooting victims within seconds, and many were transported to nearby hospitals within minutes. And while their actions are to be heartily commended, they shouldn't have been.
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry that this happened yesterday.” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told KCTV. “I and we worked hard to put on an extraordinary parade. We spent millions of dollars on it and did a lot of work. But yesterday we just couldn't keep everyone safe. I did. And that's something I feel very guilty about.”
Wednesday's shooting is not the first incident near a championship parade in North America in recent years. In 2019, a shooting occurred during the Toronto Raptors' championship celebration, injuring four people.
But it's no secret that gun violence is a much bigger problem in the United States than in Canada or other countries. Kansas City is not immune to these problems. Gun violence rates are among the worst in the nation, even among large cities.
But this statistic doesn't explain what happened Wednesday. That's why the questions Kansas City will soon be asking itself about future parade routes will also be asked by cities across the country. Did what happened in Kansas City on Wednesday end the championship parade as we know it?
If you think that's a far-fetched question, think about it for a moment. Regardless of the size of the police presence, there is no reasonable way to secure the entire parade route or outdoor venue where Wednesday's shooting took place, like a sporting event or concert. And in Missouri (and many other states), it is legal to carry a concealed firearm in many situations. There was no mention of firearms in the sporting authorities' list of parade rules.
The success of local sports teams is one of the few things that can unite residents of a city. The victory parade is the ultimate example. Instead of buying expensive tickets to watch your favorite athletes compete, anyone can get a front-row seat along the parade route and catch a glimpse, provided they arrive early enough. Masu.
But now it's all too easy to imagine citywide championship celebrations becoming exclusive events in the name of safety. Without the ability to reasonably secure gun-free zones along the parade route, teams may choose to host celebrations at their own arenas or stadiums instead of parades. Capacity will be very limited compared to city-wide celebrations, and fans will have to pass through security to enter, just as they would on game days.
This is a solution that benefits no one other than the lucky few who can participate.
A few hours before the shooting, my father and I stood at the start of the parade route and talked about how we wanted to participate in every parade. The Chiefs have now won four Super Bowls. Wednesday was his fourth Super Bowl parade. It was my third time there. We vowed that if we were lucky enough to attend again, whether it was next year or the year after that, we would not choose to go home. And we both hoped that what we were about to see wouldn't be the last we'd see together.
Little did we know it might be our last parade. And it's all for reasons that have nothing to do with the Chiefs' future on-field success.
