Sunday, August 27, 6pm
Kroger, 5991 S. Sunbury Rd., Westerville

We are shattered by the news of the extrajudicial murder of Ta'Kiya Young by Blendon Township police on Thursday evening. The 21 year old woman was a mother of two and expecting her third at the time of her killing. With this act, the true face of American policing is on display.

Several trusted community organizations are hosting an urgent action in Ta'Kiya's name, Sunday, August 27, starting at 6PM. They will assemble at the Westerville Kroger, 5991 S. Sunbury Rd. We call on our membership to join this united front against the parading evils and excesses of law enforcement in Franklin County, and on DSA chapters nationwide to support these acts of resistance and the organizers behind them.

We note that this brutal act comes mere days before the one-year anniversary of the murder of Donovan Lewis, a 20 year old Black man, by the Columbus Division of Police, who shot him as he lay in his own bed. Trigger-happy law enforcement can hardly give American families time to mourn before they resume doing what they do best--ending young people's lives.

Because we are not free until everybody is free, none of us can rest until people of color no longer live in fear of police violence. As the largest abolitionist organization in the United States, DSA's demand was and remains to defund and abolish the institution of policing, a poison on our society.

The DSA platform provides: "For all of the working class to achieve collective liberation we must constrain, diminish, and abolish the carceral forces of the state — from prisons and police themselves, to their manifestations in all forms throughout society. Each step forward in reducing the size, power, and authority of the repressive forces of the state expands the space for mass, organized, and collective action of the working class, and clears ground for us to build the institutions of a society to serve our communities with real justice and equality."

We remain devoted to the cause of abolition which is integral to the socialist movement and necessary for the liberation of working people in America.