Are the groups Dallas Justice Now and Keep Dallas Safe linked?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows both arguments: investigative pieces have identified overlapping paperwork and shared contractor ties suggesting Dallas Justice Now and Keep Dallas Safe operate in the same astroturf ecosystem, while Keep Dallas Safe has supplied documentation denying a direct relationship to Dallas Justice Now and saying its work for a vendor (Arena) was limited to website design [1] [2] [3].
1. The claim of linkage — what investigators found
Journalists and researchers tracing “zombie” astroturf groups in Dallas reported patterns linking Keep Dallas Safe and Dallas Justice Now through shared registration traces, Delaware corporate filings, and connections to a PR firm called Arena that has worked for conservative clients, with some outlets saying researchers “linked” the two groups to Arena [1] [2].
2. The counterclaim: Keep Dallas Safe’s documentation and the Dallas Observer correction
After initial reporting suggested a relationship, Keep Dallas Safe provided documentation that led the Dallas Observer to publish a correction stating Keep Dallas Safe “has no relationship to Dallas Justice Now” and that its ties to Arena began in June 2021 and were limited to website-design assistance with no connection to Dallas Justice Now [3].
3. The messy middle: corporate forms, tax categories, and opaque funding
Deeper reporting by the Texas Observer found a recurring pattern of short, similar three-word names and Delaware filings—Keep Dallas Safe, Save Texas Kids, Protect Texas Kids, and Dallas Justice Now—where public records show differing corporate structures (some as tax-exempt corporations, Dallas Justice Now as a stock-bearing Delaware corporation) and a general lack of transparent funding disclosures that make definitive conclusions difficult [1].
4. Why investigators saw a plausible link despite denials
Investigative accounts pointed to common tactics—use of professional PR firms with conservative client lists, recurring operatives and vendors, and coordinated public narratives—so even when groups use separate legal entities, those patterns suggest coordination or shared influence, which is what researchers cited when connecting Keep Dallas Safe and Dallas Justice Now to Arena and broader right-wing networks [2] [1].
5. What the organizations themselves present publicly
Dallas Justice Now’s public-facing site frames the group as a member-driven racial-justice advocacy organization promoting accountability and educational initiatives, and it publishes press releases, pledges, and recruitment appeals that read like a grassroots civic group [4] [5] [6]. Keep Dallas Safe, according to corrected reporting, produced documentation denying operational affiliation with DJN and characterizing its Arena relationship as limited and specific [3].
6. Bottom line: linked, possibly, but not legally proven in public records
The best synthesis of the public record is conditional: investigative reporting reveals overlapping vendor ties, Delaware filings, and thematic similarities that make linkage plausible and worthy of further scrutiny, while contemporaneous corrections and documentation from Keep Dallas Safe deny a direct relationship to Dallas Justice Now—leaving a credible but not legally proven case for coordination in the public sources reviewed [1] [3] [2]. The reporting shows opaque funding and recurring PR intermediaries that create the appearance of coordinated astroturf activity, but it also contains explicit denials and corrections that prevent an unequivocal ruling based on publicly available documents [3] [1].