The Ford Foundation, of course connected to Ford Motor Company has stepped in hot water once again by getting behind the “Defund the Police” movement.
The following is from our friends at Law Enforcement Today:
Since 2016, Ford Foundation has given roughly $7.8 million to Black Lives Matter and other similar groups through a partnership with Borealis Philanthropy. These groups are now the public face of the “Defund the Police” movement. The movement was actually born from a group seeded by the Foundation back in 2015 called Black Youth Project 100 (BYP 100) at the University of Chicago. Their mission was to “Disband, Disarm, Disempower” the police.
Since the group’s founding, the Ford Foundation has given them $3.1 million. BYP100 now serves as central command, recruiting protestors, providing professional protestor training, and coordinating protests in cities across the U.S.
The Foundation knows protesters alone cannot strip police departments from coast-to-coast, so the Ford Foundation also pours millions into think-tanks, media outlets, and legal groups to create a public echo chamber preaching the gospel of abolishing the police. The Brookings Institution, Center for American Progress, Forward Justice, ACLU, Center for Popular Democracy, The Guardian newspaper, and ProPublica make up part of the Foundation’s brain trust.
To understand how the Foundation harnesses its grantees to create a juggernaut like the “Defund the Police” movement, it is helpful to view them as a broker. The Foundation acts as an intermediary between their paid grantees, all of kindred spirits, who work on behalf of the Foundation to change and then to set, American domestic policy.
How does Ford Motor Company actually feel about Defunding the Police? You won’t believe their response. Our friends at Law Enforcement Today received the following statement from Ford Motor Company.
We received the following statement from Elizabeth Kraft, the Commercial Vehicle Communications Manager at Ford Motor Company.:
Ford Motor Company and the Ford Foundation are completely separate entities and have operated independent of each other since the mid-1970s. Ford has no control of the Ford Foundation’s grant-making policies or decisions. Ford’s charitable arm is the Ford Motor Company Fund.
Ford is proud to be America’s long-time leader in producing police, emergency and first responder vehicles. Our Police Interceptor vehicles are by far the top choice of law enforcement and other emergency services agencies across the country.
To be clear, Ford believes racism, abuse of power and repression in law enforcement must be addressed and stamped out wherever they exist. Good law enforcement agencies and officers play a critical positive role in our communities, but safety and fairness must be inclusive of all, everywhere.
Contrary to some misinformed stories online, neither Ford Motor Company nor the Ford Motor Company Fund has provided funding to any campaign to “defund the police.” Rather, through technology and innovation, Ford will continue to play a positive role in promoting more safety and accountability in policing and produce even safer police vehicles. Ford will continue to work closely with local and state police associations across the country on positive solutions.
The following is from the President of the Ford Foundation Darren Walker:
“Although we were established to be an independent institution, our recent efforts in southeastern Michigan have marked a reconnection with the Ford family, coming full circle with Henry’s election to our board.”
[…] Ford Foundation Donates Millions to Groups That Support ‘Defund the Police’ Movement […]