Free the Denver anti-racist organizers! Drop the charges!

The following is a sign on statement produced by the Denver Branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) in the United States.

A key focus of the Black Lives Matter movement in Denver and Colorado is demanding that charges be laid against the police officers who killed 23 year old black man Elijah McClain. McClain was placed in a choke hold and sedated before dying in police transit.

The PSL is playing a leading role in the BLM movement in Denver. For this reason four members were arrested and jailed on false charges On September 17 in an attempt to intimidate and defeat the movement for justice for McClain. The movement is not backing down in the face of this state repression but escalating a campaign for their release and justice for McClain.

Free the Denver anti-racist organizers! Drop the charges!

Statement

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the anti-racist organizers who were arrested in Denver, Colorado as part of a coordinated police operation. We demand their immediate freedom and that the charges against them be dropped.

On Sept. 17, several protest leaders, including four members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, were arrested in Denver, Colorado in a coordinated police attack. The organizers now face over 30 bogus charges including “kidnapping” and “inciting a riot,” and potentially years in prison. They were targeted because of their dedicated organizing efforts in recent months to denouncing the police murder of Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colorado.

The same District Attorney, Dave Young, who has refused to charge the police officers who murdered Elijah McClain, directed these felony arrests of the organizers who have been protesting against him. He is engaged in a corrupt abuse of his authority to silence his critics and the demands for racial justice, a declaration of war against the First Amendment.

This attack is part of a larger assault on the anti-racist movement directed from the White House, Governor’s mansions, and local governments and police agencies around the country.

We understand that this can happen to any protester, who has used their voice to mobilize in the mass movement against racism in every single corner of the United States. We stand united against this attack on civil liberties and the ongoing movement for Black Lives.

Demands: