In this week’s episode of Your Tax Dollars At Work, we bring you a nearly $100K grant handed out by the National Park Service (NPS) to U.C. Berkeley. You might be wondering what Berkeley is doing that involves parks, but it turns out not to really have anything to do with the grand spectacle of nature. It’s a grant to compile information intended to celebrate and “honor the legacy” of the Black Panther Party (BPP).

I’ll just let that sink in for a moment. Hey! Maybe this is something that Ben Shapiro can bring up tonight when he’s speaking there. The full details are over at the Washington Free Beacon.

The National Park Service is spending roughly $100,000 for a research project seeking to “honor the legacy” of the Marxist revolutionary group the Black Panther Party.

The University of California, Berkeley, which has recently been at the center of violent protests from far-left groups, is receiving funding for the project.

The National Park Service announced it was awarding the university a $97,999.70 grant for the project, outside of the normal competitive bidding process.

“This cooperative research project between the National Park Service (NPS) and the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) on the Black Panther Party (BPP) is anchored in historical methods, visual culture, and the preservation of sites and voices,” according to the funding announcement.

Are you kidding me? Reading through the rest of the grant description, it’s clear that they’re talking about a project which will, “document how the BPP impacted the visual arts, music, dance, and styles of the 1960s, 70s and 80s [and] will underscore the vastness of its impact on American culture.” Are we talking about the same Black Panther Party here or has the NPS confused them with that new superhero movie?

In case they need a quick reminder, let’s take a look at how the Federal Bureau of Investigation describes the BPP. (Emphasis added)

The Black Panther Party (BPP) is a black extremist organization founded in Oakland, California in 1966. It advocated the use of violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the U.S. government. In 1969, the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office opened an investigative file on the BPP to track its militant activities, income, and expenses.

Here’s a quick tip for you. Any time your description of a group includes the phrase “advocates the use of violence to overthrow the U.S. government” there is no “but” that comes after. That’s pretty much a deal breaker.

Who exactly is in charge of the National Park Service? At the moment, the Acting Director of the NPS is Michael T. Reynolds. He’s an Obama holdover from 2016 so perhaps that explains part of it, but the NPS falls under the Interior Department. We’ve got Ryan Zinke in charge at the top. Was he made aware of this? And if not, shouldn’t it be brought to his attention? If nothing else, it’s a reminder that the President still needs to nominate a new Director for this organization.