Last month there were a bunch of high-profile protests on the west coast organized by a San Francisco based group called the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC). These protesters shut down the Port of Oakland to prevent the loading of a military supply ship headed to Israel. When that failed they tried the same thing at the Port of Tacoma.

AROC was also responsible for shutting down the Bay Bridge for several hours on November 16.

🚨BREAKING🚨: Bay Area residents have SHUT DOWN Bay Bridge to demand ceasefire while @Potus Biden visits San Francisco. #CeasefireNow! No more genocide in Gaza!#BayBridge #CeasefireNow #BidenHarrisCeasefireNOW #APEC pic.twitter.com/xIqkKSc6TB

— AROC #FreePalestine (@AROCBayArea) November 16, 2023

It’s worth nothing that all of these protests go beyond normal levels of civil disobedience. Shutting down the Bay Bridge by parking cars and throwing the keys into the bay shut down one of the major arteries between San Francisco and Oakland. And shutting down major ports to block a military transport raised other questions, starting with how the group was able to gain access to the port, which should have had security to prevent people who have no business there wandering in. This is something that the Free Beacon pointed out a couple weeks ago could create legal problems for both AROC and the Tides Center.

“There are lawful ways and locations to exercise free speech at a public port—like getting a protest permit and holding your event,” said nonprofit attorney Jason Torchinsky. “But [nonprofit] dollars cannot be used to support criminal activities, which here may include a restricted area in violation of U.S. Coast Guard rules and interference with military operations.”

Lawmakers have in the past called for investigations into nonprofits implicated in criminal activity. Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) in 2021 demanded the IRS investigate whether any 501(c)(3)s helped organize the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“Established law has long held that an organization is not eligible for tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) if a purpose of the organization is contrary to public policy or is illegal,” Wyden noted at the time.

Tides describes the Arab Resource and Organizing Center as a “grassroots organization working to empower and organize our community towards justice and self-determination for all.” In reality, the organization seeks to “abolish Zionism” and is a leading voice in the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions movement, which wages economic war on the Jewish state.

AROC is getting pushback from another source. Prior to these other protests, the group also helped organize a public school walkout in October. AROC apparently has a contract with several schools in the city. But a group of parents known as Guardian SF, who previously helped organize the recall of three members of the school board, says AROC violated its contract and should lose it as a result.

Hundreds of students from several district high schools participated in the political action on Oct. 18, protesting the bombing of Gaza and calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

A group of San Francisco parents are now calling for the district to void a contract with the San Francisco-based Arab Resource and Organizing Center, or AROC, saying the group encouraged and helped organize the action, which interfered with classroom work and disrupted normal activities, in violation of the agreement…

“Regardless of your position on this international conflict, we hope we can all agree on some basic principles,” said parents Siva Raj and Autumn Looijen in a letter representing the parent group to district officials Wednesday citing their allegations. “In particular, political organizations — especially those contracted by the school district and given privileged access to our children — should not be in our schools organizing children to do political work and disrupting our children’s safe learning environment.”

Looijen told The Chronicle that while there is a diversity of opinions within the parent group, “no one wants political organizations using their access to students to organize them in schools.”

AROC has a 3-year contract to provide various services to nine schools in the district. But the district had warned staff in October “Staff is not authorized to lead students in a walkout.” As of today, the district would only say that it is reviewing the letter sent by Guardians SF.

This is another situation in which progressives are given a complete pass for behavior that no conservative group could possibly get away with. Just try organizing a student pro-life walk out in San Francisco and you’d see how quickly the district would clamp down on that activity and punish any adult contractors involved.