Jefferson City, MO – Pregnant women thrown to the ground. Teenagers with their teeth knocked out after violent, baseless arrests. Black sons and daughters dead at the hands of those sworn to protect them. This is what unchecked state control of police forces has brought to Missouri. And now, with Hospital 495, the Missouri Legislature is moving to strip the people of St. Louis of their right to govern their own police department, forcing them to fund an unaccountable force they have no say over.

“If this were tea, it would be thrown into the Missouri River,”
said Nimrod Chapel, Jr., President of the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP.
“The question now is, what will the people do, and when?
Taxation without representation has always had consequences.”

This latest attack on local majority rule mirrors Missouri’s long-standing state control of the Kansas City Police Department, originally imposed due to internal corruption—corruption that remains so entrenched that the Department of Justice is still investigating the department today. Meanwhile, state lawmakers claim that St. Louis is incapable of managing its own public safety, even as Springfield—a city with similar or worse crime rates in key categories—remains untouched.

“This isn’t about public safety,” continued Chapel.

“This is about control—white politicians using the tax dollars of a

majority-black city to fund a police force that will not answer to them.

The same politicians who push for state control refuse to increase officer salaries,

provide meaningful educational opportunities, or

ensure proper accountability when officers violate civil rights. Their moral authority is lost.”

The Missouri NAACP has long warned that the state is unsafe for Black and brown people. And while a handful of dedicated legislators—led by Senator Karla May—managed to insert limited safeguards into HB495, the core of the bill remains a dangerous power grab. Those Senators fought hard for concessions to allow for more accountability to the officials elected by the residents of the City, and to include some long-needed criminal justice reforms. They did a good job and made the bill better, but the fundamental problem remains. The roots of the proposal are racist and a fundamental lack of respect for the local leaders elected by the black residents of our major metropolitan areas.

At its heart, this is a civil rights issue. As W.E.B. Du Bois once wrote, “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” The people of Missouri must now decide: will they accept martial law under the guise of public safety, or will they take action before their rights disappear entirely?

Media Contact:

Nimrod T. Chapel, Jr., President
Missouri State Conference of the NAACP

President@monaacp.org