ArchCity Defenders is Fighting Back
Brianna Coppersmith, Johnny Wu Gabbert, Z Gorley, and Allen You contributed to this piece.
July 4, 2025
Happy fourth of July! This is the holiday we’re supposed to don flip flops, fire up the grill, and watch fireworks, all in celebration of American democracy and its stated ideals of self-governance, liberty, and the will of the people…right?
If you’re living in this country, you might be feeling some cognitive dissonance that is difficult to ignore. You might feel it when seeing Marines deployed against protesters in Los Angeles, when watching ICE agents abduct immigrants off the streets in cities nationwide, when witnessing acts of war without debate or Congressional approval, or when reading about legislation that slashes the social safety net for our country’s most vulnerable.
And here in Missouri, the same pattern of undemocratic power grabs and urban occupation is playing itself out in real time. We see this most recently through the passage of House Bill 495, which legislates the state of Missouri’s takeover of St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD).
This is more than a legal fight… It’s a fight for democracy itself.
We at ArchCity Defenders, alongside plaintiffs Jamala Rogers and Mike Milton, are challenging HB 495 in court. For decades, Rogers—a respected organizer and educator—has fought for Black liberation and resisted state efforts to suppress grassroots power. And Milton advances community-based alternatives to incarceration, demonstrating the power of care over punishment.
But this is more than a legal fight. In a historic moment where democratic norms are routinely being flouted, our lawsuit represents just one example of resistance against ascendent authoritarianism. It’s a fight for democracy itself.
A History of St. Louis Police Control and ResistancE
To understand how we got here, let’s take a brief look back.
HB 495 puts SLMPD under the purview of the Board of Police Commissioners, whose members are primarily chosen by the governor, but the board itself is not new. In fact, a state board controlled the St. Louis police for over a century, up until 2012, when SLMPD was brought back into the local control of the City’s mayor and Board of Alderpersons.
The Board of Police Commissioners was established in 1861, when secessionist Democratic Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson established the board under the looming threat of Republican and Unionist control. Jackson’s maneuver had little if no effect on the outcome (Missouri didn’t officially secede), but the board remained for the next 150 years.
In 2012, after years of grassroots advocacy, Missouri voters made a clear decision and passed Proposition A, returning the police to city control. It took more than 25 years of robust organizing efforts, including those of plaintiff Jamala Rogers, to mobilize a successful statewide ballot initiative that restored local governance of the police. It took more than 25 years for the will of the people to find expression in law.
But now, in 2025, this progress is at risk of being erased.
What the Takeover Means for St. Louis
Missouri’s House Bill 495, signed into law by Governor Mike Kehoe on March 26, strips control of SLMPD from St. Louis City once again, this time under the guise of “public safety.” The new law imposes a governor-appointed board to oversee SLMPD and mandates the City to increase police funding without consent from local taxpayers or elected officials. In effect, it negates Proposition A, seizes municipal resources, and reinstates a model of state control proven to fuel police violence and corruption.
It imposes an unfunded mandate.
The takeover enacts mandatory funding from the St. Louis budget for the police department, without providing any state funds. The Missouri Constitution forbids the state legislature from imposing new policies or requirements onto local governments without providing state funding.
HB 495 demands that the City of St. Louis, without any support from the state, increase its already bloated police budget.
But that is exactly what is happening here. HB 495 demands that the City of St. Louis, without any support from the state, increase its already bloated police budget. (Currently one in every three dollars of the general budget funds SLMPD) Specifically, HB 495 demands that, by 2028, one in every four dollars of the City’s budget fund the SLMPD.
It has the potential to strip away progress St. Louisans have enacted.
The takeover could dissolve hard-fought local reforms, including the Civilian Oversight Board, progress toward police transparency and accountability, and DRT campaign efforts to scale back the police budget.
The demands for accountability and control started with the formation of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression (CAPCR) in 1983. A more focused campaign for the Civilian Oversight Board (COB) was launched in 1999. The campaign for local control began a few years later and was signed into law in 2013. COB was established in 2015.
This takeover threatens to undo decades of grassroots organizing and community-driven progress. What began as a long, determined struggle for transparency, oversight, and local control is now at risk of being dismantled by a political power grab from Jefferson City.
It installs a board that does not represent the people of St. Louis.
The board under House Bill 495 would be composed of a non-voting member and five voting members. Four voting members are appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate, the fifth being the Mayor of St. Louis (Cara Spencer).
With such blatantly questionable accountability and legitimacy issues, the question isn’t whether this board will prioritize the city’s needs. It’s whether they were even meant to.
And the people who were announced to oversee SLMPD? An group almost completely made up of white residents (five of six) who are light on public safety bona fides yet heavy on political and business ties. The appointments are striking in that there isn’t even a pretense of expertise or history with the highly policed communities in St. Louis. Not all of the board members live in St. Louis City. One of them is a car salesman who has contracted with SLMPD for millions of dollars in vehicle sales.
Without any meaningful ties to the people of St. Louis, will the board work to invest in real solutions for public safety, or serve merely as a loyal proxy for the governor’s demands? With such blatantly questionable accountability and legitimacy issues, the question isn’t whether this board will prioritize the city’s needs. It’s whether they were even meant to.
It allocates money to police at the expense of programs that keep us safe.
With House Bill 495 requiring that the City of St. Louis allocate additional annual funding to SLMPD, this could mean less money will be available to fund resources and services that are proven to keep people safe, and that the City may have to increase taxes for St. Louisans to keep up the expansive budget for policing.
In times of post-disaster recovery, governments should support public safety by funding emergency systems, infrastructure, and housing…
This is especially egregious in the wake of the tornado. In times of post-disaster recovery, governments should support public safety by funding emergency systems, infrastructure, and housing, not forcing St. Louisans to bankroll unwanted police expansions.
For these reasons, it’s clear the takeover is not about “public safety.” It’s about manufacturing control through police.
How the Lawsuit Challenges the Takeover
On June 5, ArchCity Defenders alongside plaintiffs Jamala Rogers and Mike Milton filed Rogers et al. v. The State of Missouri. This lawsuit legally challenges this bill on two counts:
- The Hancock Amendment. House Bill 495 violates the Missouri Constitution’s Hancock Amendment, which bars the state government from imposing new funding requirements for local governments. Since the City has no existing funding requirements for SLMPD, the bill’s minimum revenue obligation is unlawful.
- Article III of the Missouri Constitution. Article III of Missouri’s Constitution disallows the Missouri government from specially regulating the affairs of particular municipalities. Since the bill specifically and only targets the St. Louis government and police, it is unlawful.
But legal arguments are just one front. This is part of a broader resistance against authoritarian creep. And the context couldn’t be clearer, and not just in St. Louis or Missouri.
The National Pattern
St. Louis isn’t alone. In Atlanta, we’ve seen violent repression of protestors against the “Cop City” project. In Memphis, grassroots demands for public safety investments are drowned out by reactionary state policies. In Jacksonville, Milwaukee, Chicago—wherever Black-led organizing has made gains—conservative lawmakers are clawing back power through state preemption and institutional capture.
They know they can’t win at the ballot box in our cities. So, they subvert the rules, stack the courts, override local governments, and use the police to impose their will on the citizenry.
And the pattern doesn’t end at the police. The Missouri legislature has overturned successful ballot initiatives for abortion access and paid leave. Emboldened and unchecked, what might they come after next?
Drawing a Line
This Fourth of July, we’re not just remembering the ideals of democracy. We’re fighting to make them real again.
House Bill 495 is an unlawful attack on St. Louis. But it’s also a warning.
State control over SLMPD allows Republicans to tighten their grip on St. Louis civil society without being accountable to the city’s solidly Democratic electorate. Claims of promoting “public safety” are non-starters considering likely Republican “law-and-order solutions” already apply to the extremely deadly and already well-funded SLMPD.
This is not just a local issue. It’s a flashpoint in a national crisis of democracy, especially in places where Black-led organizing has won hard-fought victories.
We’re drawing a line. This lawsuit is one piece of a much larger movement to protect democracy, defend community control, and resist the growing tide of authoritarianism.
This Fourth of July, we’re not just remembering the ideals of democracy. We’re fighting to make them real again.
With the stakes so high this Independence Day, do you want to help? Join us. Share this story. Show up. Follow us, Freedom Community Center, the Organization for Black Struggle, and CAPCR on socials to know when and where. Donate to ACD. The future of St. Louis—and American democracy—depends on what we do next.