Violence Erupts as Catholic-Funded Groups Call for Police Defunding

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Note: At the end of the article, we ask you to please send a letter to your bishop, to Bp. David Talley (chairman of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development subcommittee) and the CCHD. We've provided three sample letters for you to use in order to make the process as easy as possible.

This June witnessed a massive explosion in violent crimes in major urban areas such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City, each of which bowed to major pressure from revolutionary organizations to defund or outright abolish their police departments. Since the Fourth of July weekend alone, hundreds of people have been shot and dozens killed. One victim was an 8-year-old girl, who was murdered in front of her mother by Black Lives Matter protesters. Her death was a direct result of the diminished police presence brought about by the demands of organizations receiving Catholic funding by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) through its Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD).

Last month, the Lepanto Institute reported on several CCHD-funded organizations that openly support rioting and looting and whose members chant slogans calling for the death of police officers. In this report, we warned of the inherent danger to human life that would result from the rhetoric being used by these groups. Despite the fact that the USCCB rushed to denounce racism and police brutality shortly after the death of George Floyd, the USCCB has yet to respond to this report.

Due to the conspicuous silence from the USCCB about this report, the Lepanto Institute continued its investigation of other CCHD grantees, with particular focus on the call for the defunding of police departments in relation to the increase in violent crime. We've broken down this report by the various regions we examined, such as New York City, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and other large urban areas experiencing a spike in violent crime.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles saw a 100% increase in shootings and homicide in the first week of July, following the city's move to strip $150 million from its police force. CCHD grantee People Organized for Westside Renewal (granted $60,000 in the last-reported grants list) played a role in pressuring the city to defund the police as can be seen in this June 23 Facebook post from the organization:

Detroit

Detroit is also facing a major spike in violence with 29 shot and four killed over Father's Day weekend alone. CCHD grantee Detroit Action Commonwealth (granted $55,000 in the last-reported grants list) has been vociferous in its demands to defund the police.

Detroit Action Commonwealth (DAC) joined Black Lives Matter and issued this set of demands:

DAC also took to social media to rally against the presence of police in schools, as seen in the following June 15 post on Facebook.

This June 2 DAC Facebook post is very clear in its call for defunding the police.

A video conference posted by DAC is full of calls to revolution. It is particularly clear at the 1:23.00 mark in calling for a dismantling of all of the "systems" and acknowledging that DAC has always been pushing for the abolishment of the police.

Read the rest at The Lepanto Institute.

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