Arizona Dem Congressional Candidate Gave Away Donation From Police Union To Leftist Bail Fund

 A Democratic congressional candidate in a toss-up Arizona district gave a donation from local police officers to a bailout fund for criminals.

During the protests and riots in the summer of 2020, Kirsten Engel, a Democrat running against Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani in Arizona’s 6th congressional district, gave away the donation from the Tucson Police Officer’s Association (TPOA) to a far-Left organization that worked to defund the police and bailout criminals.

Engel admitted to receiving the $200 donation from the TPOA and then contributing that $200 to the Arizona Justice Bailout Fund in a 2020 post on Facebook. “I must disclose that my campaign did accept $200 from TPOA last year which was donated to the Arizona Justice Bailout Fund,” the post reads. “I will not accept any future contributions from TPOA or any other police union.”

The bailout fund went to support the far-Left agitators who were arrested during the Black Lives Matter riots.

“Social justice leaders across the state are protesting against the consistent acts of police brutality we see every single day,” the donation link says. “The Arizona Coalition for Change is launching the Arizona Justice Bailout Fund to support millennials and leaders of color arrested during the protests that have occurred in Phoenix and Tucson. Please contribute to this fund to help us support these freedom fighters.”

The bail fund was organized by the Arizona Coalition for Change, a radical organization that openly supported the movement to defund police departments, insinuating that they perpetrate racially motivated violence.

“In this era of state-sanctioned violence and the injustice our Black communities are facing, it is important to understand the fight activists within Arizona and across the nation are relentlessly leading – to ‘defund the police’ for the reallocation of funding in other areas of need and into communities of color,” the organization wrote online.

Engel’s donation to the organization is not her only connection to far-Left efforts to disempower police, however. The candidate, who previously served in the state legislature, has ties to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Living United For Change In Arizona (LUCHA), organizations that have advocated for defunding the police, abolishing prisons, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is charged with deporting criminal illegal aliens.

One recent investigation by National Review found that Engel maintained a working relationship with the organizations, even asking them for support when crafting legislation on criminal justice.

 

Engel even encouraged voters to “consider donating to, getting involved with, and learning from” far-Left organizations like the Minnesota Freedom Fund, the same bail fund supported by Vice President Kamala Harris. The organization went on to bail out violent criminals, including one individual who was freed after being charged with domestic abuse before going on to commit and plead guilty to murder.

The Democrat also signed on to a petition demanding reparations for slavery. The organization behind the petition called the Reparations Pledge PAC, was led by an activist who called defunding the police “a moral thing to do.”

Engel is currently projected to lose her race against incumbent Republican representative Juan Ciscomani, according to forecasting models. The two candidates faced off in 2022, with Ciscomani receiving 50.73% of the vote to Engel’s 49.23%.