Crooked policemen shaking down small business for bribes is a staple of the movies and TV. In those fictions the bribes are a sort of business insurance - a protection racket if you will. What's interesting in this investigation is that some of America's largest corporations are donating huge amounts of money to police foundations. Money that is used by police forces for the purchase of surveillance equipment and high tech weaponry. Corporation aren't funding community policing, they are funding militarized police forces in cities all of the country.
Some of America’s largest oil and gas companies, private utilities, and financial institutions that bankroll fossil fuels also back police foundations – opaque private entities that raise money to pay for training, weapons, equipment, and surveillance technology for departments across the US.
The investigation by the Public Accountability Initiative, a nonprofit corporate and government accountability research institute, and its research database project LittleSis, details how police foundations in cities such as Seattle, Chicago, Washington, New Orleans and Salt Lake City are partially funded by household names such as Chevron, Shell and Wells Fargo.
Police foundations are industry groups that provide substantial funds to local departments, yet, as nonprofits, avoid much public scrutiny.Corporations have no interest in the survival of a democratic state. They are only interesting in the preservation of their corporate profits. And, they're willing to pay for special police protection.
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