Fundraisers for Officer Slager Go Live, Go Down, Pop Up Again
by Spocko
I was going to write a post wondering who sets up and donates to the Officer Michael Thomas Slager Fundraising effort, which is now de rigueur for police shootings and bigoted business owners, when I found out that the GoFundMe site that was set up was shut down by GoFundMe as a violation of its terms and conditions.
Crowdfunding service GoFundMe removed a page Wednesday dedicated to raising money for fired South Carolina police officer Michael Slager, the website confirmed in a press release. Slager, a member of the force in North Charleston, was charged with murder Tuesday for the fatal shooting of black motorist Walter Scott and then dismissed.
[snip]
“After review by our team, the campaign set up for Officer Slager was removed from GoFundMe due to a violation of our terms and conditions,” GoFundMe Public Relations Manager Kelsea Little told ThinkProgress. Little declined to say which terms were violated due to GoFundMe’s privacy policy.
The organizer has since set up a new fundraising page for Slager on rival crowdfunding site IndieGogo, as well as allied Facebook and Twitter profiles. The IndieGoGo page had raised $60 by 3 p.m. EDT out of a $5,000 goal.
Full story here by Thomas Barrabi on
International Business Times.
At first I thought that the existence of the video would make a difference in the fund raising for Slager, but then I read the reasons they give for setting it up, "It's about being innocent until proven guilty." That's smart.
It's very important for the fundraisers to make it clear who is the real victim. Also, some people need an excuse to cover their support of racism, bad policing and out of control individual police officers. On the other hand, some people relish the chance to express their real opinions. Often they make the comment right in the donor page.
I see this new trend like buying a bumper sticker you know will piss off people you don't like.
Things like this are going to start up after an event like this, yes it disgusts you, but it's not your money so what do you do? You can't boycott them they aren't getting your money anyway. You offer people a way to do the opposite.
Example, following the Indiana Pizza Owners getting $842,000, friends of mine set up a fund to help LGBT youth. They have raised $125,000 so far.
There is much disgust and consternation in the LGBT community over a viral fundraiser effort, that has as of this writing, earned $842,387. Many have lamented, "If only our cause could raise that much money that fast."
I say, yes, we can.
So I looked and saw that Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund has set April 29 as the first national #40toNoneDay to end #LGBT youth homelessness! And I thought, would it not be totally awesome if we equality supporters (and pizza lovers) could match that #MemoriesPizza "charity" by April 29? Can we match their amount and help homeless youth get off the street, learn life skills and get an education and jobs?
Here is
the gofundme link to donate
This fundraiser will close April 28th at midnight. For information on this campaign and No Hate Pizza Parties , go to pizza4equality.org
The media love X vs. Y stories, they need them for the drama. It gives just another knife twist into the "a nation divided" stories.
You can seethe at jerks for acting like jerks, or figure out a way to help real victims of bigotry. And then the media will pick up that story for their new X vs. Y piece, until the next video makes their ears prick up and their mouth water.
