Hoovering Up Henry Ford’s Money: Crime and Democracy

Hoovering Up Henry Money: A Guide to Ford Foundation Grants (full series)
Free Money Versus Free Enterprise | Revolutions and Bullhorns
Crime and Democracy | Shaping the News

Crime and Democracy

Claiming that a babble-speak multi-whatever democracy has never existed and pledging to put it in place is clearly a winning message for aspiring grantees.

But perversely, Ford’s philanthropoids also love the narrative that a previously great multiracial democracy is in peril.

The Center for Public Integrity website warns that “our country faces historic attacks against the very existence of a multiracial democracy” because white America is “on the verge of being a minority.” Ford staffers were sufficiently alarmed to send over a $250,000 grant in September 2023, that they listed as “General support to protect democracy and inspire change through investigative reporting.”

“Our democracy is in danger,” declares the bold headline at the top of the Protect Democracy Project website, which is also adorned with images of the Ford-favored masked demonstrators and bullhorns. A main page link claiming “authoritarianism has been on the march” directs to an image of Donald Trump surrounded by the dictators of Russia, China, and Venezuela.

This reckless hyperbole was sufficient to liberate a $300,000 grant from Ford in July 2023, fulfillment of a $700,000 total commitment dating back to 2022.

Those hoping to win Henry’s money with this particular brand of fearmongering can learn a lot from the Western States Center, recipients of a $400,000 “defend democracy” grant in April 2024. Previously, the nonprofit was the sponsor of 1/6, a comic book series that, according to Western States, “chillingly illustrates how close we came to authoritarian rule in America and the threats to our democracy that we still face.” A 2022 grant from Ford was for “the development of a graphic novel about the January 6th events at the Capitol.”

But grantseekers should not mistake Ford’s desire to defend democracy for a willingness to defend the people in the democracy.

Fair and Just Prosecution promotes its partnership with a “new generation of elected prosecutors” who are part of an “incredible movement” that has “emerged with a powerful vision to transform the criminal legal system.”

One movement member is former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin. The biological or adopted son of no fewer than four members of the Weather Underground communist terrorism cell, Chesa was purpose-built to appeal to the stridently left-wing Bay Area electorate. But in reality, even they grew tired of his indifference to prosecuting rampant thievery and recalled him in June 2022.

Ironically, the Tides Center, a left-wing San Francisco advocacy nonprofit, is the fiscal sponsor of Fair and Just Prosecution. Ford gave Tides a $400,000 grant for the Fair and Just project in April 2023. Ford gave another $400,000 grant to Tides in March 2024 to spend on “social justice advocates committed to a pro-democracy framework.” For all of its projects since the start of 2023 Tides has received more than $2.6 million from Ford.

In addition to Boudin, two additional Fair and Just Prosecution allies include Cook County DA Kim Foxx and Marilyn Mosby, former Maryland state’s attorney for the city of Baltimore. Foxx’s indifference to prosecuting Chicago crime was sufficiently embarrassing that she either decided (or was told by local Democratic Party machine) not to seek reelection. Mosby lost reelection after a federal indictment and then was convicted for perjury and mortgage fraud, which she believes is neither fair nor just.

Another former prosecutor, Orange County and Osceola County State Attorney Monique Worrell, was suspended by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in August 2023. Part of the reason why was explained by the Colorofchange.org Education Fund, which praised Worrell for implementing “policies that would avoid mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes and drug trafficking offenses.”

These were exactly the policies Color Of Change had “been advocating for in our efforts to elect progressive prosecutors,” so they responded with a petition that has (after a year) not persuaded DeSantis to change his mind. But the Ford philanthropoids responded in April 2024 with a $295,000 grant.

Another failed petition effort from Color of Change was aimed at defunding the police. And it isn’t the only example of recent Ford grantees that have promoted this position.

The Vera Institute of Justice has received at least $850,000 from Ford since April 2023. “Vera is committed to dismantling the current culture of policing and working toward solutions that defund police and shift power to communities,” wrote the president of Vera in June 2020.

The Showing Up for Racial Justice Education Fund received a $600,000 in November 2023. The Ford grant description said the money was meant as “support to advance the fights for racial and economic justice.” Showing Up for Racial Justice, the group’s advocacy arm, has created a “Defund the police toolkit” that it says will help “white communities to learn and take action around calls to invest money in communities and divest from Police.”

In the next installment, Ford showers grants upon those who help inject left-wing messages into media and culture.