A campaign to support Darren Wilson, the officer who shot six bullets into unarmed Ferguson resident Mike Brown and killed him, has collected nearly a quarter-million dollars in just four days' worth of online donations -- and that money will go to Wilson and his family, according to the creators of a controversial fundraising page on the website GoFundMe.
"These funds will be used to cover potential legal fees, relocation and living expenses of both Officer Darren Wilson and his immediate family," say the administrators of the "Support Darren Wilson" Facebook page, which started the GoFundMe campaign on Monday. It received 5,902 donations, the largest in the amount of $5,000.
The campaign has ended and will transfer its funds to a second GoFundMe campaign supporting Wilson, started by a two-year old nonprofit called Shield of Hope, which bills itself as a collaboration between police departments and faith-based organizations.
But the pro-Wilson campaign assured its supporters the money would still be going to Wilson directly. The separate Shield of Hope campaign has been rather less successful, with $17,000 raised in a day.
Racist comments reportedly attached to some of the first campaign's donations, such as "don't let the savages win," were later deleted by GoFund Me. Twitter user Jon Hendren allegedly managed to get screen grabs:
did you see the @gofundme where awful people are literally rewarding darren wilson with cash for killing a black guy pic.twitter.com/KLGvLPRaxZ— jon hendren (@fart) August 21, 2014
GoFundMe shut down the comments, but declined multiple user requests to shut down the campaign itself.
In regard to the 'Officer Darren Wilson' campaign, donors' comments posted in violation of GoFundMe's terms have been removed.— GoFundMe (@gofundme) August 22, 2014
“The content of the campaign itself is not in violation of GoFundMe’s terms of service,” the crowdfunding site said in a statement.
That led to a Twitter campaign -- under the hashtag #boycottGoFundMe.
@gofundme hiding the comments does not make it better. Delete the campaign! You are profiting from a murder. #NoIntegrity #boycottgofundme— DarkAngelKiely (@darkangelkiely) August 22, 2014
.@gofundme you're still supporting a campaign that's a thin veil to support a murderer and many racists who support him. #BoycottGoFundMe— Carlos Martinez (@kacike1931) August 22, 2014
Agree with #boycottgofundme as @gofundme should be ashamed of themselves; perhaps response should include new ethical fundraiser project?— Shevek (@Spitefuel) August 22, 2014