Two online donation pages that raised more than $400,000 for the white Ferguson, Mo. police officer who shot an unarmed black teenager earlier this month appear to have shut down over the weekend.
The Los Angeles Times noted that two separate pages on the fundraising site GoFundMe, “Support Officer Darren Wilson” and “Support Officer Wilson,” appeared to stop taking donations at about the same time Saturday.
The pages had raised $235,550 and $197,620 for Wilson, respectively.
The “Support Officer Wilson” page was run by a St. Louis-based police charity, Shield of Hope, which listed a spokesman for the Ferguson Police Department among its officers on its state nonprofit records, according to the Times. The newspaper was unable to reach the three officers listed for more information about their fundraising effort.
There was even less information available about who was the founder behind the “Support Officer Darren Wilson” page, but GoFundMe told the newspaper that it could vouch for the anonymous operator.
A Facebook page connected to the fundraising efforts said Sunday that the decision to shut down the fundraisers was “made by those closest to Officer Darren Wilson looking out for his best interest.” The post assured supporters that previous GoFundMe donations would still go to Wilson.
After Wilson was identified as the officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9, counter-protests sprung up in support of the officer. A fringe Ku Klux Klan group in South Carolina also began collecting donations for Wilson, even though a leader of of the white supremacist group condemned the effort.
He can open a PAC and run for office as a Tea Party/KKK member now…nothing new…just a sad commentary on the sad state of our nation…I blame the Confederate wing of the Gop/bagger party…
Wonder if Bobby Thompson is running the anonymous fund from prison???
~meh!~
Perhaps the Minority Outreach arm of the RepubliKKKlan Party has just contributed too, too much?
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2014/08/13/kkk-raising-money-for-police-officer-who-shot-african-american-teen/
[KKK Raising Money for Police Officer Who Shot African-American Teen: “We are setting up a reward/fund for the police officer who shot this thug,” the Klan group said in an email. “He is a hero! We need morewhite cops who are anti-Zog and willing to put Jewish controlled black thugs in their place. Most cops are cowards and do nothing while 90% of interracial crime is black (and non-white) on white.”]
No offense meant to the officer or GoFundMe.
“…but GoFundMe told the newspaper that it could vouch for the anonymous operator…”
Say what?
I suppose a fool and his money are soon parted, but “the operator”? Who gave him that right and why does the operator get to handle our currency in anonymity?
Is it a legitimate business for anonymous people to set up collection agencies on behalf of victims, at the same time drumming up support to get sympathizers of “the cause” to contribute to it? What if the anonymous people set the misfortune into motion to begin with?
Tell me we know the money isn’t going to ISIS, beyond the word of some start-up’s spokesperson. Please tell me I’m missing something.
10:1 that Wilson will never see a penny of it.
This will turn out to be another Repug grifting effort.
These rubes never learn.