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A warning to impacted families and the movement about Ben Crump
For more than a decade, Attorney Ben Crump has been a parasite to the movement against police brutality. In the wake of a police murder, he find ways to benefit himself on the pain, trauma, and rage of the masses, slowly killing the growing calls for justice, then moving along to find his next target when his pockets are lined.
Positioning himself as the “Black Attorney General” and “America’s Civil Rights Lawyer,” Crump is one of the most recognizable attorneys in the US, having represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many other high profile cases of police murder. You’ve probably seen him on the news, standing beside a grieving family who’ve recently lost their loved one at the hands of the police or some other racist. Crump runs around the country, from coast to coast, trying to represent the families of every high profile case he can find. Because of his recognition, Crump knows how to get the attention of the media, where he can talk tough about how he vows to fight for truth and justice, boast about his track-record, and make sure the cameras get his good side.
To many, Crump seems legitimate, a recognizable figure that comes around to help, sheds light on injustice, and stands up to police. He’s all over the TV, standing with families, and has the clout to bring these cases attention that would otherwise get ignored. He must be good, right?
The truth is Crump is a grifter, an opportunist who’s business is to profit off of racist police killings of Black people. And as long as people trust him, business is good.
Over the years, Crump has raked in millions off the backs of police murder, with an estimated net worth of $5 – $10 million according to some dated sources, and is likely worth even more today. As a civil rights attorney, Crump “fights” police brutality through civil suits, claiming his mission is to make it too costly for cities to allow police to continue to beat and kill. When explaining this strategy, he often leaves out he takes in upwards of 40% of those civil suits, getting rich on his mission to make police brutality “too costly.” A convenient fighting strategy to stop police brutality that just so happens to put more and more money into Crump’s pocket.
Crump exposes himself when we just look a little closer at his argument. As we have discussed before in out “What About A Lawsuit?” article, in a country that spends billions of dollars every year to settle police misconduct suits, Crump’s case load barely makes a drop in the bucket. Cities routinely budget for police misconduct or pay for liability insurance, being able to quickly payout the families when they need to, so police brutality is never something a city can’t handle financially or something that throw cities into financial ruin. Additionally, police killings have only increased alongside these misconduct budgets and settlements, showing no correlation between more lawsuits equaling less killings at the hands of police.
And despite all the bravado of “fighting for justice,” Crump doesn’t even fight in civil court. The vast majority of Crump’s cases are taken to settlement, meaning the family and city reach an agreement on a lump sum of money for damages. These settlements usually involve the signing of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) which restrict the family from publicly speaking about the case after they settle. This severely harms the struggle for justice and the movement against police brutality by muzzling the family from speaking out further and demobilizing anyone in the streets fighting for justice through “resolving” the individual cases of police brutality behind closed doors. When the family is paid and the attention dies, cities can then wipe their hands clean and continue business as usual, keeping their killers with a badge on the street with little to no pushback.
At best, a fight in civil court can force a city to admit fault for the murder or beating of someone at the hands of the police. But Crump opts for the path of least resistance and pushes settlements instead: less paperwork, no litigation, and a quicker payout. Despite him trying to make it “too costly” for the cities, settlements are a compromise and always significantly less than what the initial lawsuit is proposing. Crump will sue for hundreds of millions of dollars, creating a media buzz and the illusion of making it “too costly,” only to quietly settle for a fraction of the price behind closed doors (so much for bankrupting the city in the name of police brutality). He then goes on to the next family he can find.
Ben not only does damage to the movement when he takes the case, he does equally as much damage when he drops them. The open secret among impacted families who’ve had the misfortune of dealing with Ben is a phrase known as the “Crump dump”: when Ben swoops in during a family’s most vulnerable moments, stands with them in front of the cameras and declares that justice will be served, only to ghost them when the case becomes too “complicated.” By “complicated,” we mean not easily taken to settlement.
This kind of heartless disrespect has had a massively traumatizing effect on impacted families seeking justice who’ve experienced it from Crump or another shady lawyer. When families are told things like “I’m going to fight for you every step of the way” from lawyers like Crump, in the immediate aftermath of their loved one being killed by the pigs, then suddenly dumped (often with no explanation), they begin to feel there really is nothing they can do to get justice for their loved ones. Families can go from frontline fighters to falling into depression, becoming hopeless, and out of the struggle entirely. FDJ has heard stories from dozens of families who’ve had to deal with the Crump Dump and the harsh realities that come afterwards and seen first hand the demoralizing effect it has on the families and the movement as a whole.
For all of the above reasons and more, to quote Samaria Rice (mother of Tamir Rice) referring to Ben Crump and opportunists, “Yall have literally fuck(ed) our fight up.” The problem with figures like Crump is that they tell the lie that you can get justice the from this unjust system, but only if you trust them. He tries to convince people that we can defeat police brutality through lawsuit Ponzi schemes (that just so happen make Crump rich) and relying on the system, rather than relying on ourselves to take matters into our own hands. A great example of this was when after pig Derek Chauvin was found guilty for the killing of George Floyd, Crump went on to take credit for the verdict, stating that his TV appearances during the trial were the determining factor. Crump actively ignores and writes out mass resistance, the defiant action taken by millions of people in the early days of the 2020 uprising (actions that burned down a precinct, forced the deployment of the national guard, and shut down entire cities), forcing the hand of the system to do what it is so often unwilling to do: jail a killer cop. Crump tries to take credit for the work and sacrifice put in by the masses standing up to the pigs.
This system, which runs on police brutality and murder, needs people like Ben Crump to stop the movement against police brutality from turning into a threat. He is a stabilizing force, that gets ahead, declares himself a spokesmen, and steers the movement away from confrontation.He sells the lie that only “powerful” individuals, working inside of the system, are the ones who can solve these problems, not the masses of people. He stops the families from speaking through settlements, reinforces the movement’s dependency on the system, all while making a quick buck in the process. If Crump wasn’t getting paid to be a government agent, he sure is missing out on a lot more cash.
Crump is not just a misguided lawyer trying to do right in his own way. He is an enemy of the movement against police brutality who must be isolated, ostracized, and exposed for the role he continues to play. This is part of our warning to families who are currently being preyed upon by Crump and other grifter lawyers like him. He is a danger to the movement and an obstacle if we are to push it forward. We hope to compile more stories from families and individuals about their experiences with Crump so we can further our exposure. In order to build a mass movement that can end police brutality, we must build one that will unequivocally demand the pigs be imprisoned for their crimes. Families must be brought forward as leaders, to speak for themselves, and organized to be an active force in the fight for justice. The masses must rely on themselves to make change, not politicians, not opportunists, and certainly not Crump.
We can not build the kind of movement we need with the Ben Crumps of the world sticking around. We must tell them to get lost, or move them out of the way ourselves.
If you are an impacted family with any experience involving Ben Crump, we want to hear your testimonty. Reach out at familiesdemandingjustice@proton.me
Families Demanding Justice 
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