The following Peace and Freedom Party resolution was officially adopted at the March 2021 meeting of the State Central Committee.
In 2019, Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man in Colorado, was tortured and murdered by three members of the Aurora Police Department while walking home from the store. The authorities in Colorado have refused to charge or even arrest these killers. Instead, they set their sights on organizers who were protesting the murder and demanding action for justice. In a coordinated attack, several police agencies arrested activists who had led peaceful protests of thousands of community members to demand justice. Prosecutors have filed outrageous charges, such as “attempted kidnaping” for a peaceful protest outside a police station. The organizers – Lillian House, Terrance Roberts, Joel Northam, and Eliza Lucero – are facing decades in prison, while Elijah McClain’s killers walk free.
The Peace and Freedom Party condemns the legal attacks on these brave protesters. These prosecutions do not serve justice; they seek instead to silence those who fight for justice. An attack on the movement in Denver is an attack on us all. We join the global demands to end the malicious prosecution of peaceful protesters and the attacks on the movement against police brutality. We demand the arrest of the racist cops who murdered Elijah McClain in the street. And we demand the abolition of impunity for killer cops and the racist system that oppresses and imprisons working and oppressed people throughout the country and around the world.
–Peace and Freedom Party of California
State Central Committee