The North Carolina Piedmont chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America strongly and unequivocally supports the nationwide uprising for justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Akiel Denkins, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, Breonna Taylor, and the countless Black victims of white supremacist violence and the police state.
We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter and police abolitionist movements throughout the Triangle and the United States. We condemn the police-instigated violence, including the use of chemical weapons like tear gas, and the violent arrests of demonstrators perpetrated by the Raleigh Police Department and State Capitol Police. We will continue to offer our support and join in the streets with all antiracist groups in the Triangle combating police violence, racism, and white supremacy. We also believe there is no such thing as looting by the oppressed, when we live in a land stolen from indigenous peoples and built by slaves. As anti-capitalists, we know that the real looting is done to working people by their bosses and a government that rules in the interests of those bosses.
As a democratic socialist organization, we fight for police and prison abolition because we know cops and cages don't keep us safe: we keep us safe. Toward these goals, we call on Wake, Durham, and Orange Counties and their constituent municipalities to: 1) demilitarize and defund their police forces; 2) empty their jails and prisons, which are hotspots in a pandemic that is already killing Black, Brown, and poor people disproportionately; 3) end cash bail; and 4) reappropriate funds from the police toward health care, housing, and other life-affirming social services that truly allow our communities to thrive. We will continue to support the leadership and organizing of formations like Durham Beyond Policing and Raleigh PACT, which have already made significant progress toward divesting from police and investing in communities of color.
We share the rage of all those who are making themselves heard on the streets after years of being suffocated by policing and poverty, after years of being looted by corporations, landlords, and billionaires. We will fight for a world where Black people can breathe freely. As socialists, it is our duty to fight for prison abolition, dismantle white supremacy, and build a just and liberated world.