RICO lawsuit -- Westport Community Improvement District, Kansas City

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Racist cartel alleged, class of plaintiffs certified by a federal district judge

Federal judge allows civil rights conspiracy case to expand after a local Black entrepreneur’s motion sufficiently alleged evidence of “common discriminatory purpose” to exclude Black business owners from Kansas City’s historic entertainment district. At the center: allegations of a weaponized “Good Neighbor Agreement,” brazen threats captured on tape, and a music ban targeting chart-topping Black artists.

To make matters worse, many Kansas City business owners see the city’s liquor licensing process as a labyrinth by design. State law and local ordinance create a series of checkpoints: applications, hearings, neighbor consent forms. Westport’s CID in particular, the lawsuit argues, turned that complexity into a chokepoint, where the all-white, self-interested board decides not just who opens a bar, but what kind of bar, and for whom.

The “Good Neighbor Agreement” itself remains murky. When the plaintiffs sought to see the full terms, they were stonewalled. When they tried to open without signing, they were blackballed with threats to terminate their liquor licenses.

According to multiple accounts, businesses that resisted compliance with the Westport CID faced coordinated retaliation, often in the form of liquor license intimidation or sudden enforcement actions. The CID and its affiliates also sought to influence nightlife culture more directly, pressuring venues not to hire certain Black DJs.

In one instance, a business owner admitted to signing the agreement under duress after being told he could not employ Kansas City DJ Steven Davis — whose own lawsuitalso includes a RICO charge and corroborates many of these same allegations. One message allegedly sent among CID-aligned figures discussed “strategic moves” to eliminate people deemed “problematic” from Westport. Another outlined plans to pressure landlords into breaking leases when Black-led concepts surfaced.

https://kansascitydefender.com/black...racist-cartel/

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