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Don't Shoot Coalition Pushes for Reformed Police Practices in Jefferson City
Training and Racial Profiling Take Priority at Start of Missouri Legislative Session
St. Louis, MO
As the Missouri Legislature kicks off its 2015 session, Don't Shoot - a coalition of nearly 50 St. Louis-area organizations formed in response to the police shooting of Michael Brown - has called on lawmakers to address systemic problems surrounding police practices in communities of color.
"In addition to seeking justice for the Brown family, lawmakers must deliver fixes for the ongoing crisis of police-on-Black crime," said Michael T. McPhearson, co-chair of the Don't Shoot Coalition and Executive Director for Veterans For Peace. "While some of these fixes must come from the federal and county levels, this legislative session we're laying out what can be done at the state level."
Don't Shoot promotes a vision of overall policing that:
- Is based on the concept that the role of police is to defend the safety and constitutional rights of the citizens they serve, and in which the first priority is preservation of life.
- Engages the best and most progressive police practices, meeting the highest standards for professionalism in the field.
- Reflects community priorities and shift the fundamental power dynamic between the broader community and those it assigns to protect them and keep the peace.
To this end, the Coalition outlined three key legislative priorities as first steps at the state level to ensure police accountability:
- Racial Profiling: Missouri's racial profiling bill must be strengthened to include pedestrian stops in addition to vehicle stops, and involve repercussions for police departments that have demonstrated patterns of racial profiling or failed to comply with the law.
- Restoration of Rights: Missouri law must be revised to allow individuals with felony convictions on their records to serve on juries, as well as other reforms that preclude such citizens from obtaining employment or participating in other aspects of civic life.
- Expanded Police In-Service Training: Missouri's training requirements for officers should include mandatory in-service training on topics such as anti-racism, use of force, interacting with people with mental illness, unarmed combat, responding to sexual assault, conflict resolution and other critical issues.
Although some legislators have already introduced legislation that touches on these topics, the Don't Shoot Coalition intends to partner with legislative sponsors to ensure that Missouri passes effective police reform measures.
"The role of police is to defend the safety and constitutional rights of the citizens they serve, and the first priority in that role must be the preservation of life," said Denise Lieberman, co-chair of the Don't Shoot Coalition and a senior attorney for Advancement Project. "These policies are rooted in this concept, and they reflect priorities from the broader community. This session we will be working on the ground to support legislation that advances these remedies."
The murder of Michael Brown and its aftermath have exposed the ongoing crisis of police-on-black crime. As we work toward justice for the Brown family, we must also address the ongoing systemic problems of police practices in black, brown and all oppressed communities. We come together as diverse local organizations to speak with one voice, so that the greater St. Louis area can become a model for justice for all across the United States.
LATEST NEWS
Poll Shows Double-Digit Drop in US Voter Support for Israel Since 2023
A new survey shows just 32% of US voters view Israel positively—down from 47% in 2023.
Mar 16, 2026
Support for Israel has dropped across the board among US voters over the last three years, with particularly steep declines among Democrats and independents, according to a poll commissioned by NBC News.
Overall, the poll conducted by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies found that 32% of registered US voters view Israel positively, while 39% see the country in a negative light. This is a drastic shift from 2023, when the same poll found that 47% of US voters viewed Israel positively, versus just 24% who viewed it negatively.
Democratic voters have been leading the shift away from Israel, as the percentage of Democrats who view Israel positively has fallen from 34% in 2024 to 13% in 2026, while negative views of the country have spiked from 35% to 57% over the last three years.
The shift among independent voters has been almost as dramatic, as just 21% of independents said they now have a positive view of Israel, compared to 40% of independents who viewed Israel positively in 2023. This has similarly correlated with a dramatic spike in negative views of Israel, with 48% of independents rating the country negatively, versus 22% who rated it negatively in 2023.
Republicans overall remained much more supportive of Israel than Democrats and independents, but the poll still showed that GOP support for Israel fell by nine percentage points over the last three years.
Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt told NBC News that the shift in opinion against Israel was a direct result of its assault on Gaza that has killed at least 70,000 Palestinian civilians.
"Israel may have had major military success in its war against Hamas," Horwitt said, "but its actions have badly damaged its standing among the American people."
A poll released by Gallup in February found that, for the first time ever, US voters said they were more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israelis, just one year after finding that Americans expressed more sympathy toward Israelis than Palestinians by a margin of 13 percentage points.
Israel's unpopularity among Democratic primary voters has led to candidates trying to distance themselves from groups such as the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is spending big in primaries to defeat Democrats who have been critical of the Israeli government.
As reported by CNN on Sunday, even Democrats running as supporters of Israel have taken pains to not be associated with AIPAC, which has become especially toxic among Democratic primary voters.
"From Minnesota to Mississippi, operatives involved in races told CNN candidates are constantly facing questions about the group on the trail," the network noted. "Incumbents tell CNN they expect it to come up regularly at town halls. And online, detractors constantly pounce on politicians’ comments they perceive as sympathetic to Israel as evidence of being coopted by AIPAC."
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Israel Says IDF Will Stay in Lebanon for Months as It Expands Ground Invasion in South
"There is no clear exit strategy for this war. While in theory Israel is trying to coerce Lebanon into disarming Hezbollah, it is unlikely that can happen," said one analyst.
Mar 16, 2026
More than 800,000 Lebanese people who have been forced from their homes in southern Lebanon in the last two weeks have little hope of returning soon as the Israeli government on Monday announced its military had begun "limited and targeted ground operations" in and around the strategic southern town of Khiam, a stronghold of Hezbollah.
The ground attacks represent a significant expansion of the Israel Defense Forces' ground operations. On March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for the US and Israel's killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israel began sending troops into Lebanon to bolster the presence the IDF has had there in five areas since a 2024 ceasefire.
Until now, ground forces have conducted "limited incursions," Axios reported.
Israel has also launched airstrikes in Lebanon, killing at least 850 people—including 107 children and 66 women—since it was joined by the US late last month in abruptly ending diplomatic negotiations and attacking Iran.
The Times of Israel reported that the IDF carried out "massive airstrikes and artillery shelling 'to remove threats'" over the weekend before the 91st "Galilee" Regional Division began raiding the eastern section of southern Lebanon in attacks that the military said killed several Hezbollah operatives.
Israel conducted raids on towns including Burj Qalawiya, Sultyaniya, Chaqra, Qantara, and as-Sawana on Monday, according to Al Jazeera Arabic, with the military saying the 91st Division had "begun limited and targeted ground operations against key Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon."
A major target of the ramped up ground attacks was Khiam, a Hezbollah stronghold that lies at a strategic junction of roads leading to the eastern and western sections of southern Lebanon.
"What Israel has been trying to do is really cut the supply lines and the difficult capabilities of Hezbollah, so it’s unable to bring in more weapons and fighters to areas south of the Litani River," reported Zeina Khodr of Al Jazeera.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that due to what the IDF claimed will be "limited and targeted ground operations," close to a million people who have fled their homes in southern Lebanon "will not return to their homes south of the Litani River until the security of the residents of [northern Israel] is guaranteed.”
While claiming the operation in southern Lebanon will be "limited," Katz also said the operation is intended to resemble Israel's assault on Gaza, which has continued despite a ceasefire that was reached last October, has killed more than 75,000 Palestinians, and has been called a genocide by leading human rights groups and scholars.
Dozens of healthcare workers have been killed in Israeli strikes since the IDF began attacking Lebanon earlier this month; in Gaza, more than 1,500 doctors, nurses, and medics have been killed in October 2023. One attack that killed two paramedics this week in the southern village of Kfarsir was reportedly a "double-tap" strike in which first responders were killed when they arrived to help victims of an initial strike on a building.
The charity group Save the Children on Monday described children "clutching beloved pets and toys as they flee their homes in Lebanon due to the escalating conflict," and said nearly 300,000 children are among those who have been forcibly displaced.
More than 130,000 people are sheltering in overcrowded schools that have been repurposed as refugee shelters, said the group, and families have had to leave their homes without time to gather crucial documents, clothes, or medications.
“Many families were forced to flee in the middle of the night with nothing, and children miss their homes, their villages, their friends, and their schools," said Nora Ingdal, country director for Save the Children Lebanon. "I met a child who told me, ‘I'm not able to play here and I just want to go back to my village as soon as possible.’ One child I met clutched his blue toy car, as it was the only thing he had managed to bring from home."
"Hostilities must end and children must be protected at all costs," said Ingdal. "We know children are always the most impacted in any conflict, and the psychological impacts last long after any conflict ends."
The IDF is reportedly calling up 450,000 reservists to carry out the ground invasion, and the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that a senior Northern Command official told reservists in a briefing that the operation could continue "until Shavuot," a Jewish holiday falling between May 21-23.
"We will stay as long as necessary," the official said.
Lebanese security sources told Reuters Monday that the IDF had effectively taken control of Khiam and were advancing west toward the Litani River, which could cut off parts of southern Lebanon from the rest of the country.
Katz has also threatened to seize territory in the southern area in an effort to uproot Hezbollah.
Geopolitical analyst Shaiel Ben-Ephraim said Israel appears to be using "coercive diplomacy" and expressing a willingness to hold direct talks with Lebanon in the coming days.
"Israel is applying the Daheyia Doctrine, which uses overwhelming, disproportionate force against civilian infrastructure in areas controlled by Hezbollah to deter future attacks," said Ben-Ephraim. "However, they plan to use this increasingly against Lebanese infrastructure to coerce Lebanon into a deal."
"There is no clear exit strategy for this war. While in theory Israel is trying to coerce Lebanon into disarming Hezbollah, it is unlikely that can happen," he said.
US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) emphasized that the expanded ground operation in Lebanon is one of several crises unfolding as a result of President Donald Trump's decision to launch attacks against Iran with Israel.
"A broader, regional war is breaking out," said Murphy. "Trump has no endgame. Iran and its proxies can create chaos indefinitely."
"All of this was totally foreseeable," he added. "Frankly, it’s why previous presidents weren’t so stupid to start a war like this. Trump has lost control of the war. His best course now is to cut his losses and end it. That’s the only way to prevent an even bigger disaster."
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'AIPAC Getting Desperate’: Pro-Israel Super PAC Tries to Splinter Left Vote in Illinois House Primary
Kat Abughazaleh, the progressive candidate for Illinois' 9th Congressional District, said the Israel lobby's attempt "to split the vote" between progressive candidates "has never been seen before."
Mar 16, 2026
With just days until the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, Chicago voters found their social media feeds blanketed with an ad praising a candidate considered well out of the running in Tuesday’s race.
"Bushra Amiwala is the real deal, fighting for real economic justice," concludes the 30-second commercial, which touts the 28-year-old activist's backing of Medicare for All, student loan forgiveness, and other policies aimed at economic justice.
As it came to light that a political action committee associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was behind the ad, Amiwala said she "could not be more disgusted" by the campaign.
“Let me be clear,” she said. “We don’t want it, we didn’t ask for it, and we’re demanding they stop.”
The ad boosting Amiwala was part of a $100,000 spending blitz by the Chicago Progressive Partnership, which The New York Times describes as "a super PAC that has disclosed few details about its backers but shares vendors with groups linked to [AIPAC]."
The pro-Israel lobbying group is not throwing resources behind Amiwala, a fierce defender of Palestinian rights, to boost her campaign, but to sap the momentum of Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive candidate who has surged to within arm's length of leading the race in the weeks ahead of the March 17 primary.
AIPAC has spent more than $1 million trying to stop Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old Palestinian-American journalist and media analyst, from taking the seat held by the retiring incumbent Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat.
Abughazaleh, whose grandparents fled Jerusalem during the 1948 Nakba, has called Israel's US-backed military campaign in Gaza a "genocide," and has called for the conditioning of military aid to Israel—including funds for its Iron Dome defense system—on an end to its human rights violations.
She has also opposed laws criminalizing participation in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to pressure Israel to change its conduct using economic means.
The most recent poll, from March 9-10, shows Abughazaleh trailing just four points behind frontrunner Daniel Biss, the Democratic mayor of Evanston, Illinois.
Though he recently has described AIPAC as "toxic" and has called for the conditioning of some "offensive" aid to Israel, Biss described BDS as a tactic "used to advance antisemitic ideology" and said he supports the "special relationship" between the US and Israel in a January blog post.
He has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of creating a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza, but has stopped short of using the word "genocide."
AIPAC, meanwhile, has thrown more than $4.6 million behind an even more pro-Israel candidate, state Sen. Laura Fine (D-9), who during the race has firmly supported full military funding for the country "without additional conditions," even after its military campaign has killed at least 72,000 people in Gaza and independent estimates show even higher death tolls.
Biss has also become a target of $1.5 million in spending from another AIPAC-aligned group, Elect Chicago Women, which has run ads attacking him over a vote to cut Medicaid and for having broken his pledge to serve a full term as mayor before seeking higher office.
The 9th District is one of four Democratic primaries across Illinois where AIPAC and aligned groups have spent more than $15.8 million combined to support pro-Israel candidates, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings analyzed by the group AIPAC Tracker.
Like in Illinois-9, these groups have shied away from making their connections with AIPAC known—as Democratic voters overwhelmingly distrust its branding—and have attacked their opponents on issues not related to Israel and often from the left.
AIPAC has already attempted this tactic in New Jersey's 11th district, where it backfired tremendously last month: Rather than helping a right-wing candidate, the group's attack ads claiming that the liberal Zionist former Rep. Tom Malinowsky supported US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led votes to flow to Analilia Mejía, a progressive endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who ultimately emerged victorious.
"Massive outside spending from corporate PACs and groups like AIPAC has long been used to overwhelm grassroots candidates and distort the democratic process, reflecting the priorities of wealthy donors rather than everyday voters," Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of the progressive group Our Revolution, told Common Dreams. "But recent races show that strategy does not always deliver the results these interests expect. From New Jersey’s 11th district to North Carolina, where Nida Allam came within a fraction of a percent of victory, voters are increasingly questioning the flood of outside money in their elections."
Nevertheless, AIPAC is using the same playbook in Illinois.
Axios noted that last week, the Chicago Progressive Partnership began targeting tech entrepreneur Junaid Ahmed, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Justice Democrat-backed candidate in Illinois' 8th district, not for his outspoken criticisms of Israel but for his large personal fortune and his investments in Tesla, which it used to tie him to its CEO Elon Musk, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump.
Abughazaleh has been hit with similar attacks claiming she'd received funds from "right-wing donors" and criticizing her support for Republican Marco Rubio in the 2016 presidential election, when she was in high school.
CAMPAIGN UPDATE: 2 DAYS LEFT!!!💥 Endorsed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib!!💥 AIPAC getting desperate!!💥 Doorknocking all over the district!!💥 Phonebanking all afternoon!!💥 Donate at katforillinois.com — we have to buy + print more literature bc we’ve had so many volunteers!!
[image or embed]
— Kat Abughazaleh (@katmabu.bsky.social) March 15, 2026 at 12:21 PM
In the final days of the campaign, Abughazaleh has described AIPAC's tactics against her as a sign of "desperation" in the face of growing "Abughamania."
With Fine largely out of the running, she said the group has pivoted toward "the only horse left they could have in this race: Mayor Daniel Biss."
Abughazaleh described the group's sudden launch of ads supporting Amiwala "to try to split the vote" as something that "has never been seen before."
On Sunday, Abughazaleh won a key endorsement, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian-American in Congress. She also has the backing of another leading progressive figure in Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), as well as the Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement.
“AIPAC’s guiding principle when buying elections: Just lie,” said Justice Democrats in response to a report on AIPAC’s tactics to divide left-wing voters. “Spend millions to lie about who you are, lie about who you’re supporting, lie about your agenda. They know that they are so toxic and their policies are so unpopular that being truthful would lose them every election.”
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