REVEALED: George Soros has plowed $3M of 'dark money' into BLM activists pushing to defund the police
- Billionaire George Soros poured $3million in 2020 into 'dark-money' hub supporting activists pushing to defund the police
- Soros Foundation to Promote Open Society funneled money to Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability, grant database shows
- Hub bills itself as 'a resource for local advocates and organizers working to address the harms of policing in the US...'
- Soros-backed Hub states that it houses and staffs the group Defund The Police
Liberal billionaire megadonor George Soros supplied $3million last year alone to a 'dark-money' group supporting left-wing organizations such as BLM that are dedicated to defunding the police, it has emerged.
The Foundation to Promote Open Society, which is one of two major grantmaking foundations funded by Soros' network, Open Society Foundations, funneled a total of $3million in 2020 to the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability (CRH), according to a search of the charity's grant database.
Soros' foundation bankrolls CRH through New Venture Fund, the largest of four funds managed by Arabella Advisors that pulled in a combined $1.6 billion in secret donations last year, tax forms show.
Critics have argued that New Venture Fund is a 'dark money' organization, allowing left-wing donors to anonymously pour money into political causes.
In 2020, the New Venture Fund reported total revenues of $975million, up 111 percent compared to 2019, bringing its lifetime revenues to $3.3billion. In that time, the fund paid out $1.37billion in grants to mostly left-leaning organizations.
The funding of CRH fits neatly into Soros' years-long crusade to transform the criminal justice system, which has seen him pour tens of millions of dollars to help elect progressive district attorneys in cities like Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Billionaire George Soros poured $3million in 2020 into a 'dark-money' group supporting activists pushing to defund the police in cities across the US, grants show
The Soros Foundation to Promote Open Society has funneled money to the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability, according to the charity's database
Soros' foundation bankrolls CRH through New Venture Fund, a fiscal sponsorship nonprofit that makes grants to left-wing advocacy projects.
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Soros, a Hungarian-born financier-turned-activist and favorite right-wing punching bag, has a net worth of $8.6 billion. He has donated more than $32 billion to Open Society, according to Forbes.
In 2020, Soros' network spent $2million on creating CRH's year-long 'Budgeting Academy' program to train community safety advocates in how to advocate around their local municipal budgets, according to the grants search.
An additional $1million went toward providing support for CRH.
A year earlier, Soros' foundation shelled out $1million to get the Hub off the ground.
CRH states that it houses and staffs the group Defund The Police, which describes itself as 'a one-stop shop information source for campaign to defund police,' Fox News reported.
The group hosts weekly two-hour 'invest/divest learning communities' that are attended by 40 to 60 organizers across the country focused on 'Budget Advocacy, Community-Based Safety Strategies, Police Fraternal Association Contracts, and Reparations for police violence.'
The hub also hosts a Defund Police Fellowship 'supporting 16 fellows in 13 cities with funds to support organizing staff, and offers monthly trainings and skill building sessions, weekly office hours with budget, campaign strategy, and communications experts, and a peer mentor program.'
The 'defund the police' movement took root after the murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, which sparked protests and clashes with the police. Pictured: United States Park Police pushes back protestors near the White House on June 1, 2020
The Soros-backed CRH's website states that it houses and staffs the group Defund The Police
CRH offers more than 700 resources to grassroots organizations, including this 24-page memo on 'alternatives to policing'
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, left, was propped up by a PAC that Soros gave $2million to. San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin is pictured, right
CRH bills itself as 'a resource for local advocates and organizers working to address the harms of policing in the U.S. and seeking to cultivate community safety and accountability outside of the criminal legal system.'
The organization's website offers more than 700 resources, including research, data, reports and tools to progressive activists around the US pushing to defund local law enforcement agencies as part of a concerted effort to reform the criminal justice system and address systemic problems with policing in America.
The site includes a disclaimer that notes that 'resources that appear on the Community Resource Hub website are not necessarily supported or endorsed by the Hub.'
The 'defund the police' movement took root after the murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.
Black Lives Matter and other influential organizations are seeking to shrink police department budgets and reallocate resources to mental health professional and social workers, housing and education.
Critics of the billionaire have accused him of being responsible for skyrocketing crime rates in cities around the US, claiming that under the Soros-backed Democratic prosecutors, criminals have been allowed to walk out of jail without bonds and, in many cases, commit new crimes.
Since 2015, the deep-pocketed philanthropist spent $28million on district attorneys' races in dozens of cities, including $2million that went to a PAC that backed Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx in her successful re-election campaign in 2020.
A year later, Chicago, where Foxx is the top prosecutor, has the highest murder rate in 30 years.
Soros has also donated to PACs that support Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, who has been widely panned for failing to crack down on organized smash-and-grab shoplifters that have been terrorizing local businesses.
Soros has also poured funds into the campaign of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who ran on a criminal justice reform platform and has been slammed by his opponents as being soft on crime.
He boasts of sending fewer people to jail, represented BLM and Occupy Philadelphia protesters and was funded by George Soros: Philadelphia’s woke DA Larry Krasner is presiding over a record crime spike
Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner is pictured arriving at a polling site on Election Day, November 2, 2021
Larry Krasner, a 60-year-old longtime civil rights and defense attorney who sued the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times, won election in 2017 against a crowded field by billing himself as the outsider candidate capable of making radical change.
Krasner's campaign benefitted from the largesse of controversial Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros, who poured an eye-popping $1,7million into the race to support the Democratic candidate's criminal justice reform agenda.
Under Krasner, the future years of incarceration have been cut by half, and the length of parole in probation supervision have been slashed by nearly two-thirds compared to the previous DA.
Krasner, who previously defended Black Lives Matter and Occupy Philadelphia protesters as a lawyer, has clashed with the city's top cops over his reluctance to prosecute non-violent gun and drug possession crimes, despite a surge in gun violence and rising homicide rates in the City of Brotherly Love.
As of November 21, 2021, there have been 491 homicide victims, a 14 per cent increase from last year's number of 436, and 283 in 2019.
The Philadelphia Police Department and Krasner have been at loggerheads over a steep drop in convictions related to gun offenses.
This year, police in Philadelphia have made a record number of arrests for illegal gun possession, but the suspects' chances of getting convicted have dropped from 63 per cent in 2017 down to 49 per cent in 2021, according to an analysis by the Philadelphia Inquirer published in March.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw was previously quoted as saying that Philadelphia’s criminal justice system has become a 'revolving door' for repeat gun offenders since Krasner was sworn into office in January 2018.
Krasner has blamed the decrease on police submitting weaker evidence in cases, or on witnesses failing to show up in court to testify.
The progressive Democrat DA has contended that his main focus is on convicting people who use guns to kill or hurt others, not those who are caught being in possession of the weapons.
Krasner's office has argued that there is little evidence that suspects accused of being in possession of guns are responsible for the uptick in gun violence.
Compared to the previous DA term, Krasner's has imposed 24,000 fewer years of incarceration and 102,000 fewer years of supervised probation or parole since 2018.
In addition, under Krasner there have been 23 exonerations of offenders serving sentences for which he says a review found insufficient evidence.
The progressive Democrat DA has contended that his main focus is on convicting people who use guns to kill or hurt others, not those who are caught being in possession of the weapons.
Krasner argued that the city should be most concerned with structural problems, such as underfunded schools and high poverty rates.
'Yes, enforcement is a small part of the story,' he told the Inquirer earlier this year. 'The big part of the story is not that. The big part of the story is this city’s chronic failure to invest in prevention that the community is crying out for. That is where we have to go.'
Krasner's office has argued that there is little evidence that suspects accused of being in possession of guns are responsible for the uptick in gun violence, considering that the recent surge in gun-related arrests has not resulted in a significant decrease in shootings.
Police Commissioner Outlaw said in September that she and Krasner 'just don’t agree' on whether prioritizing illegal gun and drug possession prosecutions would reduce violent crime in the city.
'Fundamentally, there are very key disconnects there, as far as which crimes we prioritize, and who believes what are the main drivers of the violent crime that we’re seeing,' Outlaw said.
In late March, the Democratic City Committee voted not to endorse Krasner for May’s primary election, but he easily trounced primary challenger Carlos Vega and then won reelection on November 2.
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