{"id":46544,"date":"2024-03-18T07:10:49","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T07:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/in-kansas-city-a-festive-yet-cautious-st-patricks-day-parade\/"},"modified":"2024-03-18T07:10:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T07:10:49","slug":"in-kansas-city-a-festive-yet-cautious-st-patricks-day-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/in-kansas-city-a-festive-yet-cautious-st-patricks-day-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"In Kansas City, a Festive Yet Cautious St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Irish dancers, Gaelic football players, green everything: Thousands of spectators gathered for the St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade in Kansas City, Mo., on Sunday, the first citywide parade since a deadly shooting last month roiled the city\u2019s Super Bowl celebration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade, the city\u2019s 50th this year, is regarded as one of the country\u2019s largest, with crowds known to reach hundreds of thousands. On Sunday, a sizable \u2014 but notably smaller \u2014 crowd sporting green beanies, vests, cowboy hats and sweatshirts came together, even under high winds and chilly temperatures. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The parade showcased Gaelic Athletic Club members demonstrating their hurling skills, bagpipe players, antique fire trucks and lots of green items, including cotton candy, plaid hats and stuffed animals. There was a stand with T-shirts that read \u201cKansas City has our own St. Patrick,\u201d with a photo of the Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes \u2014 which at one point were almost blown away by the fierce winds. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the festivities were not without the somber reminder of a shooting at the Chiefs\u2019 Super Bowl parade on Feb. 14 that left one dead and 22 injured, rattling the community. Two men, Lyndell Mays, 23, and Dominic Miller, 18, were charged with murder in connection to the shooting, and two teenagers were charged with resisting arrest and \u201cgun-related\u201d offenses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, many on Sunday were determined to not let last month\u2019s tragedy disrupt a treasured tradition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI don\u2019t live my life through fear,\u201d said Tiffany Hermann, 40, at the parade, who also attended the Super Bowl celebration. \u201cI\u2019m going to enjoy my life to the fullest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There was a heavy police presence, with more than 400 officers, including some in plain clothes in the crowd, according to Sgt. Phil DiMartino of the Kansas City Police. He added that was about a 10 percent increase of officers from the year before. Several police cars lined the parade route. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Whether it was wariness over last month\u2019s shooting, or the colder weather, or some other reason, attendance at the parade on Sunday appeared to be much smaller than that of past years. Some spectators noticed there were significantly fewer people this year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNormally you have to look through people. You would never find an area like this where there\u2019s a big gap between people and nobody standing in front of you,\u201d said Sadie Sanchez, 60, an engineering manager. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Sanchez\u2019s daughter, Cherri Sanchez, a 36-year-old paramedic, said her brother decided not to come after being at the scene of the shooting. \u201cHe\u2019s a little bit traumatized still.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A group of friends who attended the Chiefs parade said they felt safer coming to Sunday\u2019s event because the crowd was smaller. Sarah Jones, 23, a copywriter, still felt unease but ultimately decided to attend. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI just don\u2019t want people to think of Kansas City and think of\u201d the shooting, Ms. Jones said, adding, \u201cThere\u2019s so much more that\u2019s special about here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For some, the cheerful and wholesome atmosphere was enough to come celebrate, despite the recent shooting. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen the town gets together, it\u2019s nothing but fun, love and friendship. It\u2019s family,\u201d said Autum Diggs, 28, who works in sales and as a medical assistant. She added, \u201cI\u2019m not going to let one bad apple spoil it all for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A little girl holding a green hat danced to a marching band making its way through the parade. Even as her family was leaving the parade grounds, she kept dancing, as the music faded. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Irish dancers, Gaelic football players, green everything: Thousands of spectators gathered for the St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade in Kansas City, Mo., on Sunday, the first citywide parade since a deadly shooting last month roiled the city\u2019s Super Bowl celebration. The St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade, the city\u2019s 50th this year, is regarded as one of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}