Rick DeVos and his family have been coming for you and your children for a very long time

Rick DeVos, the son of Dick & Betsy DeVos, recently shared on X some video of the Cosecha action at Long Road Distillers. However, DeVos shared it from the Grand Rapids Businessman Facebook page – the Grand Rapids Businessman was formerly known as Commies of Grand Rapids and is a MAGA-like page that hates on people.

Here is the language from the Grand Rapids Businessman post:

Grand Rapids anti-ICE activist group, Movimento Cosecha, protests inside Long Road Distillery owned by Mayor David LaGrand and former commissioner John O’Connor.

The group was led by paid activist Jeff Smith and demands Mayor LaGrand adopt sanctuary city status.

One clarification on the GR Businessman language is that Movimiento Cosecha is not demanding that Mayor LaGrand adopt sanctuary city status, rather to adopt 6 sanctuary policies which will prevent the City of Grand Rapids from sharing information or allow the GRPD to cooperate with ICE.

More importantly, Rick DeVos adds his own commentary in his sharing of the action at Long Road Distillers, saying:

“You only have to read a tiny bit of revolutionary history to realize that even when you’re nominally on the side of these lunatics they will eventually come for you.”

My initial response to this is, so Rick how much revolutionary history have you read? Do you think that Rick DeVos is referring to the history of the French Revolution, the Algerian Revolution, the Cuban Revolution or perhaps the Bolivarian Revolution. It’s impressive that Rick found time to read up on revolutionary history while he has been busy doing projects like ArtPrize or figuring out ways to expand his wealth through Wakestream Ventures.

The more important aspect of Rick’s comment is the part that says, “even when you’re nominally on the side of these lunatics they will eventually come for you.”

People with the kind of power and privilege that Rick DeVos has will always refer to those who oppose injustice as “lunatics” since you always have to demonize people you don’t agree with. Second, Long Road Distiller co-owner Jon O’Connor can yell fuck ICE, but he doesn’t give a shit about the fact that in Grand Rapids ICE has been arresting and detaining immigrants since 2003 and he as a former GRPS School Board member and former Grand Rapids City Commissioner did nothing to prevent ICE from terrorizing immigrants. In fact, O’Connor was a City Commissioner when a GRPD Captain called ICE to tell them to arrest Jilmar Ramos Gomez, a former US Marine and US citizen. So Rick, Jon O’Connor is not now and has never been nominally on our side.

Then there is the matter of Rick DeVos saying “they will come for you.” What exactly does he mean here? If he means that people will confront injustice and challenge systems of power and oppression, then that will absolutely happen. However, those of us who are fighting oppression aren’t coming for those with power and privilege, at least not the way that Rick DeVos and his family has been coming for people.

The DeVos family has contributed to the election campaigns for Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024. During President Trump’s first administration and 16 months into his second administration the federal government has been coming for people and their children, which includes:

• Arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants causing lots of family trauma and economic hardship.
• Adopting economic policies that have made it hard for working class families to survive in the system of Capitalism that Rick DeVos and his family has made billions off of.
• Adopting anti-trans policies that has lead to physical violence against those identifying as trans, along with emotional harm, discrimination and other horrendous consequences from adopting anti-trans policies.
• Increasing the US military budget with continued support of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians, an assault against Iran, kidnapping the President of Venezuela and his family, etc.

The DeVos family has also been the largest contributor to the Republican Party in Michigan since 1990. This has resulted in attacking labor unions in Michigan, undermining public education in Michigan, providing further tax breaks for the Capitalist Class, reducing Government funded safety nets, and providing billions in public money for developers to expand their wealth.

Rick DeVos and his family also hides hundreds of millions of dollars from being taxed in their foundations and then re-directs that money to far right think tanks, the religious right and to other entities that support their ideological stance on numerous issues. You can read about all of this in 830 pages of the DeVos Family Reader.

Rick DeVos wants people to think that he and his family have high moral standards, but the truth is that the DeVos family has been coming for you and your children for decades and that they are exponentially more threatening to your well being than immigrants dancing and demanding and end the ICE terrorism in Grand Rapids.