In rural Kansas, residents saw threats from outsiders during a fearful year of disease and political unrest in the U.S. Some decided to do something about it.
GRINNELL, Kansas—A few weeks into the, a van with Colorado plates pulled up to the Hometown Grocery & Cafe in Grinnell, a town of 269 people in a county of 2,600. “I’m here to buy all of your toilet paper,” the driver said.
Police in Colby, Kansas, a town of 5,500 in Thomas County, about 40 miles northwest of Grinnell, received intelligence reports last year from other law-enforcement agencies that Black Lives Matter protesters from Colorado planned demonstrations in Kansas, said Colby Police Chief Ron Alexander. Similar reports reached the Gove County Sheriff’s Office.Jody Beckman and Chance Beckman having lunch at Hometown Grocery.
By December, their weekly meetings were drawing dozens of people, some from local volunteer fire departments and emergency services, said Andrew Todd, 30, one of the organizers. Worried about its image, the group went public early this year, posting a mission statement at the Dairy Queen, feed stores and the Pit Stop gas station.
and there was toilet paper, sure they’re going to buy it,” he said. “But I don’t see that as a threat to our way of life.” Tyler Tuttle playing with his daughter Journie in Grainfield, Kansas. Mr. Tuttle said he was approached about joining the Gove County Emergency Response Team.Mary Jane Goetz pulls Nora and Zela Goetz from the post office in Grinnell.
“They have the right to assemble like everybody,” Sheriff Mesch said later. “But I wanted to let them know where I stood.”