Friday, January 20, 3:30-5pm, Bicentennial Park, 233 Civic Center Dr.

Help #disruptJ20 by demonstrating that the people of Columbus will not stand for local officials nor the President of this country continuing to militarize police forces.

Meet at Bicentennial Park at 3:30pm for a brief march to the Columbus Police Department, 120 Marconi Blvd.; we will then take our demands to City Hall, 90 W. Broad St. We will then march back to Bicentennial Park at 5pm and will have a very short debriefing. Banners and signs will be covered by Showing Up for Racial Justice [SURJ] Columbus!

The people of Columbus have seen firsthand the devastating results of a police department that is unaccountable to its residents with the killing of Henry Green and Tyre King this past year. Now, with the Columbus Police Department’s addition of LRAD (Long Ranging Acoustic Device) to their arsenal of military grade weapons, we are further experiencing the local effects of the national crisis of police militarization. LRAD is a military grade “sonic weapon”; its uses have been almost universally to silence the people and to protect the state. We find this movement towards a further militarized Columbus Police Department reprehensible and demand that our city return LRAD and reject additional federal funding for military-grade equipment.

This event has been organized by a working group of Showing Up for Racial Justice [SURJ] Columbus, a local chapter of a national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves White people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. SURJ provides a space to build relationships and skills and political analysis to act for change.