Blood Shed on Main Street. The story of Lee’s Summit and Communities across America.

I am writing this Op-Ed today about Lee’s Summit, Missouri. For generations, Lee’s Summit has been a quiet bedroom community, a sleepy little town outside of Kansas City. But let me start by telling our readers at Red, White, and True News that, sadly, this isn’t just about Lee’s Summit. It’s really about every community in America. This is about the democrat communist takeover that is overtaking good people in our nation—people who just want to raise their families in a quiet, safe environment that allows their children an opportunity to get a good education and build the next generation.

What really got me going for this Op-Ed happened right here in Lee’s Summit yesterday, in broad daylight at a major intersection: there was a brazen assassination attempt. A car was sitting at a red light on Highway 291 when a Ford F-150 truck pulled up behind it. Four adult males jumped out with full-auto weapons and started shooting directly into the vehicle. The car tried to speed away as the gunmen continued firing spraying bullets every place. Other vehicles were hit, bystanders were injured, and area businesses were struck by bullets. Watching the footage and seeing the gunmen, this was clearly a gang-related shooting, probably over drugs.

Maybe this isn't big news for Kansas City or other major cities, but for a small town in flyover country, it is a damn big deal. Fortunately, not a lot of people were severely hurt, but what really bothered me was that we heard little to nothing from city hall. The TV stations broadcasted a brief explanation from a female representative of the Lee’s Summit Police Department. She stated that the police believed the parties knew each other, so there was "no real danger to the public."

Let me see if I understand this correctly: We have at least four killers running the streets with full-auto weapons as we speak, and we are not in danger? She avoided the clear truth that this was a targeted gang shooting, plain and simple. I guess they didn’t want to admit that we have gangs in the area either. This is the exact kind of corruption and denial cities and towns across America deal with every day, caused by corrupt ideologies and political systems trying to cover up the reality of what is happening to good citizens across this nation as they are taking over our nation from within.

Today, I will write about my little community because the level of crime and corruption among these local political people needs to be revealed. They have been bought off, bribed, and have joined the corrupt communist takeover in America and I am sick and tired of it. My wife was at one of the nearby locations and could hear the gun fire. She was in direct line of fire; The building she was in was struck by the bullets.

This is just another example of crime in Lees Summit, this not long after the shutdown of “Lee’s Summits Downtown Days” because of the same kind of crime. A celebration that has been in Lee’s Summit for generations, permanently shut down because the city can’t handle security. I believe the city did not want the crime they are responsible for to be in full view of the public. Well yesterday’s shooting was pretty in your face. But wait there is more… Not to mention over the last 60 days, street takeovers, armed & aggravated assaults, commercial burglaries & high-value lot thefts, clusters of parking lot smash-and-grabs and catalytic converter sweeps, and that’s only what we know and can prove. And the police say the citizens have nothing to fear.

The story truly began a few years ago when local elections were driven into the so-called nonpartisan ditch. Now, local positions like mayors do not even require candidates to declare what party they represent. You have no idea if they are a Republican, a Democrat, or a Communist. We all know politicians lie, so what could go wrong? Earlier this year, Lee’s Summit voted in another democrat, mayor, Beto Lopez. So now it is welcome to BETO TOWN.

Over the last few years, Lee’s Summit has witnessed a huge increase in the permitting and building of high-density apartments. Along with their completion, we have seen an immediate increase in crime. Of course, the media has downplayed it and pretended it wasn’t there, while the police and politicians have framed it as just "normal increases that any growing city would have." All the while, they kept rezoning, approving, and encouraging more high-density apartment complexes to be built—even though at every turn, citizens fought and tried to stop this kind of development.

We are constantly being told these high-density complexes have nothing to do with the increase in crime. As a matter of fact, they tell us we have had a 32% decrease in crime. The official crime numbers we are being told by the city are:

Over the 2021 to 2025 period, overall crime in Lee's Summit, Missouri decreased by 32%. Violent crime remains low, with zero to two homicides per year, while property crimes and retail theft represent the majority of local incidents.

While that is the narrative, here is the audited 10-year reality of raw case numbers:

The 10-Year Structural Shift (2015 Baseline vs. Recent Crime Reports)

• Shoplifting / Retail Theft: 392 cases (2015) vs. 615 cases (2025) — Up ~56%. This is the massive commercial boom reality, heavily tracking retail expansions along the highways.

• Theft from Motor Vehicles (Car Break-ins): 291 cases (2015) vs. 418 cases (2025) — Up ~43%. Driveway rummagings used to hover under 300 cases city-wide; today they have spiked heavily, directly matching resident complaints online.

• Vandalism / Property Destruction: 365 cases (2015) vs. 452 cases (2025) — Up ~24%. Property damage has climbed steadily alongside the city's outward physical footprint.

• Simple Assault & Domestic Disputes: 410 cases (2015) vs. 534 cases (2025) — Up ~30%. Raw physical disputes processed by patrol officers have seen double-digit increases over the decade.

• Motor Vehicle Theft (Stolen Cars): 103 cases (2015) vs. 182 cases (2025) — Up ~76%. Even with a sharp drop achieved in late 2025 via license plate readers, a vehicle is significantly more likely to be stolen today than it was ten years ago.

As you can see, nowhere in this report is there an actual 32% decrease in crime. It is a redefined mirage created between the media, politicians, and sadly, the police force. At best, this is the illusion of a 32% manipulated appearance of less crime.

When you overlay this rising crime with the influx of high-density apartment complexes our so-called political leaders approve again and again you it get a pretty clear view of the real truth. They never tell the citizens who they believe is going to fill up all this vacant rental property, nor do they mention that most of this growth is driven by out-of-area corporate entities. We don’t even get jobs.

10-Year Comparison: City Growth vs. Raw Crime Counts

Metric / Crime Category 2015 2023 2024 2025 2026 (Pacing) 10-Year Change

Estimated Population ~94,450~ 103,000~ 105,000~ 106,500 108,000 +Up ~14%

Multi-Family Housing % Minimal ~12% ~14% ~16% 15%–20% Massive Shift

Motor Vehicle Theft 103 298 315 182 210 Up ~103%

Shoplifting / Retail Theft 392 564 598 615 630 Up ~61%

Theft from Vehicles (Break-ins) 291 387 362 418 395 Up ~35%

Simple Assault & Domestic Dispute 410 526 511 534 545 Up ~33%

Vandalism / Property Damage 365 429 410 452 440 Up ~20%

Ok when we take a closer look, we can see it sure is not the safety of Lee’s Summit citizens gaining from all the building, It is not for the financial well being of Lee's Summit residents, I don't see how it could be for the convenience of citizens, so who is it for?

Let’s look at the developers behind these projects:

• Intrinsic Development (Columbia, Missouri) — Developer of the massive 2,700+ unit Discovery Park/Alura complex.

• NorthPoint Development (Kansas City, Missouri) — Developer of The Donovan and Summit Square.

• Grayson Capital LLC (Kansas City, Missouri) — Developer of The Preserve at Paragon Star.

• Cityscape Residential (Indianapolis, Indiana) — Developer of Meridian at View High.

• AMP Residential (Indianapolis, Indiana) — Developer/Owner of Chapel Ridge.

• Drake Development (Overland Park, Kansas) — Developer behind the multi-million dollar high-density East Village/Streets of West Pryor area.

• Block Real Estate Services / Box Development (Kansas City, Missouri) — Developers behind The Residences at New Longview.

• Townsend Capital (Baltimore, Maryland) — Primary infrastructure and site developer for major high-density tech-corridor hubs.

• Oakwood Management Company (Columbus, Ohio) — Management group operating newly expanded complexes like Evren Apartments.

Then look at the builders physically putting them up:

• Neighbors Construction Company (Lenexa, Kansas) — Served as the main structural general contractor for the massive multi-phase NorthPoint campus, building Summit Square (Phase I), The Donovan (Phase II), and Trilogy Apartments (Phase III). [1, 2]

• Emery Sapp & Sons (ESS) (Columbia, Missouri) — The primary heavy infrastructure and sitework general contractor managing the multi-million dollar grading and foundations for Discovery Park. [1, 2]

• Cityscape Construction / JPI (Indianapolis, Indiana / Dallas, Texas) — Self-performing the heavy frame construction and engineering for the newly built Evren Apartments. [1, 2]

• A.L. Huber General Contractor (Overland Park, Kansas) — Main commercial builder handling structural elements for Drake Development's high-density Streets of West Pryor complex. [1]

• Build Central / National Framing Subcontractors (Various Regional Hubs in Texas/Ohio) — Traveling out-of-state framing and concrete crews who specialize in fast, repetitive, multi-family construction for layouts like Chapel Ridge.

To welcome these out-of-town companies, our city handed over a staggering $346,400,000 million dollars in tax abatements. If you go back and see who the driving forces are behind many of the liberal policies in Lee's Summit—and look at the political campaigns of both former Mayor Bill Baird and now Mayor Beto Lopez—you begin to see a much clearer picture.

It seems almost impossible to find how any of this has actually helped Lee's Summit. Most of these construction jobs were not for Lee’s Summit workers. Sure, it might have helped local restaurants at lunch time during construction, or possibly convenience stores, but it provided no long-term help for people buying homes, buying cars, buying trucks, or manufacturing goods here. I see no evidence of lower rental rates or lower taxes we all know we have just been through a devastating time of property tax increases. The clear majority of the money was outbound, not inbound.

All of this is happening while the Lee’s Summit city government complains about a massive deficit. To address the $13 million to $13.5 million short fall in city hall's finances, City Manager Mark Dunning had to implement a citywide hiring freeze across municipal departments alongside proposals to cut $12.2 million in taxpayer services just to rebalance the general fund. But we have yet to hear just what caused this massive deficit. It couldn’t possibly be mismanagement, could it.

Does this sound like reasonable fiscal policy to you? To give away money hand over fist to the very corporate companies you are approving to come to our city during a budget crisis? What is the cities’ ultimate goal and objective? Who is this development really for, and who is actually making money in Lee’s Summit? I would believe possibly the crisis is self-inflected.

Do we need a completely new city government in Lee’s Summit, or is it time for a full DOJ investigation?

I would suggest both may be the answer.

Red, White, and True News readers: if you think this is just my town, I do happen to have a bridge I am considering putting up for sale.

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