The crowdsourced fundraising service GoFundMe sought to justify their early decision last year to terminate campaigns for Kyle Rittenhouse after the teen shooter was acquitted on all charges Friday.
“GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit raising money for the legal defense of an alleged violent crime. In light of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, we want to clarify when and why we removed certain fundraisers in the past,” the platform wrote on Twitter with a link to a company statement.
Yet while Rittenhouse was denied crowdsourced funds for a political show trial charging the shooter with first-degree homicide in a case that was clearly self-defense, the website is still hosting campaigns soliciting donations for Black Lives Matter activists charged with violent crimes.
One campaign, titled “CHARGED WITH BANK ROBBERY DURING GEORGE FLOYD RIOT,” has raised $140 of a $40,000 goal for a couple arrested in May last year.
“My girlfriend was released with no paper, but unfortunately they kept me and charged me with bank larceny,” the description reads, adding that the charges have since changed to “attempted bank robbery.”
Another titled “Fundraiser for Tuscon Arrestees” is soliciting donations for 12 people who face felony riot charges. The campaign has so far raised nearly $7,200 of a $12,000 goal.
The “Tia Pugh Legal Defense Fund” is raising money for a 22-year-old Alabama woman arrested for criminal mischief and inciting a riot. The fund has just fallen about $50 short of a $3,000 goal.
Rittenhouse, however, was unable to collect donations from the website because the then-17-year-old shooter was charged with a violent crime. According to the political establishment, violence emanating from the left isn’t violence. It’s morally righteous in the name of social justice.