Report: "Woke" Corporations Supporting Black Lives Matter Quietly Funding
Police
Corporations like JPMorgan Chase, Chevron and Marathon claim to support the
movement for black lives, but their donations to police help "tyrannize the
very communities" they claim to stand with.
by Alan Macleod
August 03rd, 2020
By Alan Macleod
In the wake of worldwide public outrage over racist police violence, many of
the United States' largest corporations rushed to publicly align themselves
with the growing movement for black lives. Yet a new report from the Public
Accountability Initiative exposes how corporate America is actually
bankrolling police departments across the country, including many of the
same ones facing scrutiny over racist practices.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jaime Dimon very publicly took a knee outside a New York
branch of his bank in early June, also circulating a memo declaring the
financial institution's supposed dedication to struggling against injustice.
"Let us be clear - we are watching, listening and want every single one of
you to know we are committed to fighting against racism and discrimination
wherever and however it exists," he and the company's diversity chief wrote
together.
Jamie Dimon knee
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon takes a knee with employees in front of a bank
vault. Photo | JPMorgan
Marathon Petroleum, the country's 22nd largest business according to Fortune
magazine, celebrated Juneteenth on its public Facebook page, declaring
itself to "stand firmly against racism, intolerance and hate of any kind."
"Commemorating the ending of slavery in the U.S. is one way we're
encouraging learning and empathetic dialogue among our employees, as we work
together to identify meaningful ways we can make progress," it wrote.
Chevron was even more emphatic. "Black lives matter," it said via Twitter,
sharing words from its CEO Mike Wirth, who claimed he, "shared the anger and
pain felt by so many Americans at the recent killings of unarmed black men
and women." "Racism and brutality," he added, "have no place in America."
While many were quick to point out that black lives in Ecuador did not seem
to matter much to Chevron, where it has refused to pay for an accident that
dumped over 80 times the amount of oil BP spilled in the Gulf of Mexico, the
company continued to associate itself with the growing public discontent
against racism.
Backed by corporate power
But the Public Accountability Initiative's new study found that these
companies were responsible for bankrolling some of the country's most
notorious police departments. By giving money to police foundations,
corporations essentially buy weapons, equipment, and surveillance technology
for law enforcement, helping them to avoid public scrutiny of questionable
purchases and adding to their already bloated budgets.
"These companies, which rely on extraction and exploitation to secure their
profits, have an incentive to form tight bonds with police forces, which
function to uphold and protect their interests in the face of community
opposition. In many states, these companies go so far as to back laws to
criminalize protests of dirty energy projects such as pipelines, openly
weaponizing the police and criminal justice system to protect the profits of
the fossil fuel industry and the banks that fund them," they write.
JP Morgan Chase, for instance, is an official "corporate partner of police."
In the wake of the Occupy Wall Street Protests - a movement directly aimed
at the power and wealth of corporations like JP Morgan Chase and suppressed
by the NYPD - the bank donated $4.6 million to the New York City Police
Foundation. The NYPD has been among the most brutal in its opposition to the
George Floyd Protests, with officers choking black men unconscious, ramming
patrol cars into crowds of protesters, beating up medical workers, and using
fake taxis to arrest demonstrators.
Marathon, a company synonymous in Michigan with polluting communities of
color, also has a close relationship with the police, its Security Director
sitting on the board of Detroit's police foundation. Meanwhile, Chevron is a
top corporate sponsor of police departments all over the country, including
in New Orleans, Houston, and Salt Lake City. Together, these companies not
only donate huge sums to law enforcement but also sponsor events and galas
celebrating the institution, reminding the public, in the report's words,
"that police power is backed up by corporate power."
Public anger
The protests - and the heavy-handed response to them - has hardened the
public's attitude to law enforcement. A June survey found that
three-quarters of Americans supported the movement against racist policing.
Perhaps more surprisingly, one Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 39 percent of
the country agreed that police departments should be "completely dismantled"
and the money given to address homelessness, mental health and domestic
violence, a number not altogether inconsistent with similar polls on the
issue.
While "woke" corporations like JPMorgan Chase, Chevron and Marathon claim to
be supporting the movement for black lives, their donations to police, the
report notes, help to "tyrannize the very communities" these corporate
entities are now claiming to stand with against injustice.