Jay-Z and Team ROC Ups Pressure On DOJ Urging Investigation Of KCK Police

Jay-Z and Team ROC are upping the pressure on the Department of Justice to investigate the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department.

Team ROC released a statement with the nonprofit Midwest Innocence Project and said there’s enough evidence of systemic police misconduct in the department that it warrants an investigation.

In the statement, addressed to Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, both groups said the DOJ’s inaction tells targeted minority communities “justice does not exist for them.”

“We are committed to holding these so-called public servants accountable for alleged rampant acts of brutality and exploitation and request a meeting with the DOJ to discuss our findings—findings we hope will move you to act. These allegations require the urgency that the Kansas City, Kansas
community deserves. This is a critical time in and for our nation. The DOJ’s continued inaction tells targeted minority communities held hostage to the whims of the carceral state that justice does not exist for them, that their lives do not matter.”

Team ROC sued the Kansas City Police Department in September for records that would help evaluate the department’s “training and supervision.”

Team ROC lawyer Alex Spiro said allegations of corruption and civil rights violations against police over the decades are not isolated.

NBC News reports, the incidents include a case of a former KC detective who was the subject of a federal investigation last year after he was accused of exploiting Black women for sex and framing people for crimes they say they did not commit.

Team ROC is Jay-Z’s philanthropic group, the social justice division of Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation.

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