by Peter Hasson at Fox Business
The National Football League’s “Inspire Change” partners, which receive financial backing from the multibillion-dollar league, include multiple groups that have openly advocated for defunding the police, a Fox News Digital review of the program found.
Groups who have received funds as part of “Inspire Change,” the NFL’s social justice initiative, include the Vera Institute of Justice, the Oregon Justice Resource Center and the Community Justice Exchange. All three of those groups support defunding or abolishing the police, a review of their public statements shows.
While the NFL’s general support of social justice causes is widely known, the fact that the league is propping up groups trying to defund police departments has not been previously reported.
The NFL’s “Inspire Change” program includes funding for groups trying to defund or abolish police departments. A banner promoting the “Inspire Change” initiative is seen here before an October 2020 game between the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Foo (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images / Getty Images)
The NFL gave $300,000 to the Oregon Justice Resource Center (OJRC), the group disclosed to local media. It’s unclear how much the NFL gave to the Vera Institute of Justice and Community Justice Exchange, though the NFL has donated tens of millions of dollars as part of the “Inspire Change” program, according to the league.
Vera and the Community Justice Exchange have been NFL grantees since 2020, while the OJRC first received funding from the NFL this year, according to the league.
The Community Justice Exchange, which didn’t provide a comment by press time, aims to get rid of not only policing and prisons, but also immigration enforcement, according to its public statements.
“The Community Justice Exchange is working towards a world without prisons, policing, prosecution, surveillance or any form of detention or supervision,” the group states on its website. Its work includes publishing a roadmap to “prison abolition.”
The group also runs the National Bail Fund Network, whose chapters include the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a group that gained notoriety for bailing out rioters and alleged domestic abusers, among others, during the summer 2020 riots. Vice President Kamala Harris was among the high-profile figures who promoted the Minnesota Freedom Fund last year.
The NFL’s support for the group includes supporting “75+ local community-based bail and bond funds, working to end money bail and pre-trial detention at the local level and immigration detention at the national level,” according to the NFL’s “Inspire Change” website.
The OJRC is similarly open in its support for defunding the police.
“The brutality of LE [law enforcement] & cruelty of our prisons are connected by the same malignant tumor: white supremacy,” the OJRC tweeted in June 2020. “We must dismantle/defund it all.”
In August, when Portland’s mayor called for restoring previously slashed police funding amid a crime spike, the OJRC criticized the move.
“Portland leaders from the Mayor down or anyone else advocating for more $ for police either don’t get it or don’t want to get it,” the group tweeted. It added: “We need to defund the police and build up communities.”
A demonstrator holds a “Defund the police” sign in Brooklyn, New York. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The NFL’s funding of the OJRC supports its Women’s Justice Project, Youth Justice Project and “[s]ustaining current capacity and enabling the OJRC to expand,” according to the league. The OJRC declined to comment.
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