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Despite maintaining public distance from the “defund the police” movement, President Biden’s administration has quietly maintained relationships with some of the driving forces behind the far-left movement, White House visitor logs reviewed by Fox News Digital show.
Several defund the police activists have visited the Biden White House and met with top aides over the last year, White House visitor logs show.
While Biden has largely espoused pro-police rhetoric during his time in office, he has tapped left-wingers in sync with the defund movement to key positions in his administration.
In late May, he signed a sweeping police reform executive order that drew mixed reactions from police groups.
And throughout it all, anti-police activists appear to have had a direct line to the White House.
Rashad Robinson, president of left-wing racial justice group Color of Change, visited the White House last summer for what appeared to be a meeting with Cedric Richmond, a top Biden adviser who recently departed as the director of public engagement.
Both Democratic lawmakers and members of the media have pushed the movement to defund police. (Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images) ((Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images))
Color of Change has been among the most active groups advocating to defund the police. In 2021, they were at the forefront of the unsuccessful push to “dismantle” and replace the Minneapolis Police Department, an effort that was fueled by $500,000 from George Soros’ Open Society Policy Center.
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“We know that policing doesn’t keep us safe, communities do,” reads a Color of Change petition calling on supporters to demand their local officials start the defunding process. “Policing doesn’t lead to thriving communities, investment does.”
“We must begin to envision the society that functions for ALL of us and we must begin by divesting from and dismantling the systems that unjustly harm Black people,” the petition says.
Robinson has also celebrated the birthday of convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur by calling for progressive groups to get “bolder” and “louder” in their demands for police abolition and their “plans for revolution.”
Shakur, a hero among anti-police activist groups, is a former Black Liberation Army leader who was the mastermind behind several armed robberies in Connecticut and New York. In 1981, the Brinks robbery resulted in the slayings of an armed guard and two police officers.
STACEY ABRAMS SERVES AS BOARD MEMBER, GOVERNOR OF FOUNDATION THAT SUPPORTS #ABOLISHTHEPOLICE
Shakur was convicted for the 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster but later escaped prison and was granted asylum in Cuba by the late Fidel Castro. Shakur, whose married name is Joanne Chesimard, is on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list and carries a $1 million reward for information that could lead to her apprehension.
Robinson is also on the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, a Seattle-based left-wing grantmaking group, which he joined alongside Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. After they both became governors of the foundation, the board unanimously voted to expand its anti-police efforts.
The Marguerite Casey Foundation, meanwhile, also has a member who has visited the White House, according to its visitor logs.
Carmen Rojas, the President and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation and a vocal supporter of defunding the police, visited the White House in December 2021 and appeared to meet with Nia Page, a Special Assistant to Richmond before his departure last month to join the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
“We must be unwavering in our commitment to freedom,” Rojas tweeted in April 2021. “The best way to realize it is to defund the police and support abolition. Period.”
In May 2020, Rojas tweeted out a quote from an article that said, “Abolishing police unions as part of the broader fight to defund, demilitarize, and ultimately dismantle the U.S. police force as it currently exists. Labor leaders should seize upon this crucial moment to fully embrace this aim—and some already have.”
Not only has her foundation repeatedly called for defunding and abolishing police, but it has also awarded millions of dollars to woke college professors and scholars who have advocated for abolishing prisons and teaching anti-Capitalist views.
Latosha Brown, the co-founder of Black Voters Matter and a civil rights activist, has also advocated for defunding the police.
According to the White House visitor logs, her contact person in July 2021 was Vincent Evans, who worked in Vice President Harris’s office before leaving to be the executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).
“We are proud to be partner in the #DemocracyFrontlinesFund, created to leverage millions of new dollars to fund Black-led organizers fighting for free and fair elections, and working to defund prisons and police,” Brown’s organization tweeted in September 2020.
In another tweet from June 2020, Brown’s organization called for defunding sheriffs to “build voter power.”
In August 2020, Brown promoted a “Defund the Police 101 Teach-In” event led by two other defund the police activists.
“Earlier this week, after President Biden addressed the nation on voting rights, we urged his administration to prove its commitment to combating voter suppression and lay out a strategy to restore ballot access,” Brown said in a press release about her meeting with Harris. “Today’s meeting with Vice President Harris marked an important step toward building that strategy.”
Other defund the police activists who have visited the Biden White House include Tylik McMillan, who serves as the “National Director of Youth [and] College” at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. White House visitor logs show him visiting the White House four times between April and December of last year.
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“Police don’t make communities safe, but opportunities make communities safe,” McMillan said in July 2020. “What we’re saying is that a defund to the police is a refund to the people.”
Neither the White House nor any of the activists mentioned responded to Fox News Digital’s inquiries.