Profits From 'Racially Motivated' Fundraisers Supporting Ferguson Cop
ColorOfChange.org recently announced a petition to have the online fundraising website GoFundMe remove the pages started to support Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Missouri, police officer responsible for the killing of Michael Brown.
Also, because GoFundMe receives 5 percent of every donation processed, ColorOfChange.org has also called for the website to return the profits made.
With the pages “Support Officer Darren Wilson” and “Support Officer Wilson" having already raised more than $420,000 in total, GoFundMe has earned more than $20,000. As listed on the fundraising pages, the funds will likely be used to cover any potential legal fees, relocation and living expenses of Wilson and his immediate family.
"Your own terms of service prohibit 'items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance, or the financial exploitation of a crime.' If Darren Wilson is charged, then it would stand to reason that these fundraisers are in violation of your terms, specifically 'financial exploitation of a crime,'” the petition reads.
"Profiting off the killing of Michael Brown is not OK. Profiting off of racially motivated donors is not OK. These types of disturbing fundraising efforts have no place on the world's #1 personal fundraising site."
The organization emphasized its point by including some of the offensive donor comments left on the pages, however, the comments have since been taken down after GoFundMe faced backlash on Twitter.
"In regard to the 'Officer Darren Wilson' campaign, donors' comments posted in violation of GoFundMe's terms have been removed,” the company tweeted.
A screenshot posted on Twitter shows some of the removed comments, which include the following:
“Waste of good ammo. It’s my privilege to buy you a replacement box.”
“Ofc. Wilson did his duty. Michael Brown was just a common street thug.”
“I support officer Wilson and he did a great job removing an unnecessary thing from the public!”
“Darren and those like [him] are all that stand between Americans and anarchy. After 60 years of supporting the blacks I give up.”
The ColorOfChange.org petition allegedly has 83,000 signatures and counting.
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(Photo: courtesy Shield of Hope via GoFundMe)