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FOP: GoFundMe Says Campaign for Shooting Involved Officer “…In Support of a Hate Crime”

Photo supplied/South Bend Police Department)

GoFundme.com has taken down a crowdfunding campaign for Sgt. Ryan O’Neil, and the local FOP isn’t happy about why.

South Bend FOP President Harvey Mills says he was informed the campaign was taken down because it was “in support of a hate crime”. In a release Tuesday night he says anti-police advocates pressured GoFundMe into the decision.

The full transcript of the press release is below:

SOUTH BEND, IN – Today, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #36 in South Bend, Indiana
announced that its fundraising campaign in support of Sgt. Ryan O’Neill had been cancelled by GoFundMe. In less than a day, the campaign had already raised more than $5,000.

“Anti-police activists must have pressured GoFundMe into cancelling our campaign to help Sgt.Ryan O’Neill pay for his legal defense in a civil lawsuit filed against him,” Harvey Mills, South Bend FOP President said. “Shockingly, GoFundMe told us that they cancelled the campaign because it was in support of a hate crime. This is fundamentally wrong and I’m shocked that a company would accuse a police officer of a hate crime simply for defending himself from an armed attacker.”
The FOP announced a new campaign that is being run on another fundraising platform, Fundly.

The Campaign can be accessed here: https://fundly.com/defend-officer-ryan-o-neill

Mills continued, “I find it truly offensive that GoFundMe would cancel our campaign to defend a police officer who hasn’t been accused of a crime while they freely allow violent groups like Antifa to raise money to support criminal acts that have been on the news recently.”

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5 comments

Keith July 3, 2019 at 7:53 am

It’s a hate crime to defend your life?

Reply
David Sims July 3, 2019 at 11:52 am

GoFundMe isn’t innocent in the matter of this despicable cancellation of a charitable outreach. GoFundMe was entirely too gullible, too quick to believe lies told them. GoFundMe should be taught a legal lesson about its proper role as a host of charitable outreach, specifically that it may not discriminate based on political beliefs or on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations made by the beneficiary’s enemies.

Reply
Erin July 29, 2019 at 5:03 pm

GoFundMe stood behind their policy regarding raising money for a civil lawsuit that contains hate crime in it. His lawsuit does. This policy is not new and the FOP didn’t care when I warned them of this. GoFundMe shouldn’t be attacked because all they did was actually follow their own policy. The FOP is always crying.

Reply
Daily Show Prep: Wednesday, July 3 - The Burning Truth July 3, 2019 at 6:19 pm

[…] FOP: GoFundMe Says Campaign for Shooting Involved Officer “…In Support of a Hate Crime” […]

Reply
Erin July 29, 2019 at 5:00 pm

I happened to have talked to the FOP before I talked to GoFundMe and explained that the civil lawsuit states there could be a hate crime. Because of that you cannot raise money for the civil lawsuit. They ignored my warnings. Now apparently I am anti-police. Actually, I am definitely not. We need police.

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