Group That Smokebombed Jewish Leader’s Home Appears in Violation of Charity Laws

NLPC Counsel Paul Kamenar is expressing alarm about the tangled finances of an antisemitic group called The Peoples Council of Los Angeles that has close ties to the Black Lives Matter movement. As explained by Susannah Luthi in the Washington Free Beacon:

The People’s City Council of Los Angeles launched in 2020 with a pledge to support the Black Lives Matter movement, attracting a flurry of large-dollar donations in the process. After years of fundraising inactivity, the self-described “abolitionist” group is now using its budget to target local Jewish leaders.

 

The council—which bills itself as an “abolitionist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist collective”—raised more than $2.5 million in the summer of 2020 thanks to a viral GoFundMe campaign to support BLM protesters. But the group never registered as a nonprofit or reported how it spent the money, prompting the California Department of Justice to bar it from raising and disbursing funds last year.

 

That decision did not stop the People’s City Council from participating in the infamous Thanksgiving Day attack on AIPAC president Michael Tuchin’s Los Angeles home, which saw far-left activists throw smoke grenades, scatter fake blood and infant body bags, and display signs saying, “FUCK UR HOLIDAY BABY KILLER!” After posting videos of the scene on social media, the group in a Monday statement defended the “protest,” saying it will “keep applying pressure to any entity complicit” in Israeli “violence.” Los Angeles police are investigating the incident as a hate crime involving “assault with a deadly weapon,” a spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon.

Also from the article:

“The People’s City Council of LA has as sketchy a financial situation as is possible for an activist group to have,” said Parker Thayer, investigative researcher for the Capital Research Center, adding that the lack of financial disclosures by a group that has raised millions is “unprecedented.” Paul Kamenar, counsel to the watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center in Washington, D.C., echoed Thayer’s assessment, saying that because the group appears to be “in violation of California charity laws,” it could face hefty fines.

 

As a result of original NLPC research, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation co-founder Patrisse Cullors was forced to resign from the group in 2021. NLPC’s allegations, detailed in a Complaint to the IRS, related to her purchase of four pieces of real estate, and apparent self-dealing and inurnment. NLPC has also emphasized Cullors’ 2015 call at Harvard Law School for individuals to “step up boldly and courageously to end the imperialist project that’s called Israel.”