BLM’s Anti-Police Racket Is Coming Undone

The organization has squandered its moral authority by acting like a hustler on the make 

By Jason L. Riley. He is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Excerpts:

"After the New York Post reported in April 2021 that a BLM co-founder had purchased four homes for a total of $3.2 million, the head of a local BLM chapter in New York City called for an independent investigation into how money was being spent. In July, BLM leaders in Canada, with help from its U.S. affiliate, purchased another multimillion dollar mansion in Toronto, which prompted several activists in the local chapter to resign. And earlier this month, New York magazine reported that BLM leaders purchased a $6 million California home in cash with money that had been donated to the organization.

“The transaction has not been previously reported, and Black Lives Matter leadership had hoped to keep the house’s existence a secret,” the article said. “Internal emails dating to 2016 show activists voicing concern about how donations were being spent and how the organization was being run. . . . The families of some Black victims of police violence have complained that they have seen little of the funds that have flowed to the movements most visible facet.” Floyd’s death produced a windfall for the group. In October 2020, it took in $66.5 million in contributions. Weeks later, it purchased the California property. BLM told the magazine that it had “always planned” to disclose the purchase, but didn’t explain why it hadn’t."

"attorneys general in California and Washington state had ordered BLM to cease fundraising activities until the group submitted delinquent financial disclosures. The organization told Fox that “we take these matters seriously and have taken immediate action.” If the public doesn’t know more about these shenanigans, New York magazine explained that it might be because the organization carefully monitors social media for negative mentions, “with members using their influence with the platforms to have such remarks removed.” It’s also hired private investigators “to look into [BLM] detractors and journalists.”"

"The BLM movement’s other problem is that its prominence has been propelled in part by lies and half-truths. Michael Brown was shot dead after he attacked a police officer, and the “Hands up, don’t shoot!” story is a myth. Trayvon Martin was a troubled young man, and based on physical evidence the jury determined that Mr. Zimmerman fired at him in self-defense.

"There is nothing wrong with calling out dirty cops or police brutality, which aren’t figments of black people’s imaginations. But neither do most blacks believe, as BLM types insist, that policing is a larger problem than criminal behavior."

BLM represents a fringe minority of black Americans rather than the mainstream majority. A Pew Research Center survey released last week found that crime is the top concern of black adults, which is nothing new. The 1968 Kerner Commission report noted that the loudest complaints from black neighborhoods concerned the lack of police protection—specifically, the relatively small number of cops assigned to black neighborhoods and their slow response to emergency calls."