Flexible Principles

GoFundMe stirred up a controversy recently when they decided that the Canadian truckers protest in Ottawa violated their principles. They claim that they'll refuse funding to anyone who breaks the law and uses violence, and they espied such behavior among the truckers.

In a recent press release they state:

We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.

The truckers protest against onerous vaccine mandates had won the support of donors all over North America, but GoFundMe originally intended to divert the contributors' donations, some $10 million, to charities approved by the truckers but relented after considerable pushback. They then decided to refund the money to the original donors.

As Elle Reynolds at The Federalist points out, GoFundMe's stance against violence and law-breaking seems a bit skewed. According to Reynolds, GFM has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for law-breakers and individuals accused of violence. For example:

• One GoFundMe fundraising campaign entitled “CHARGED WITH BANK ROBBERY DURING GEORGE FLOYD RIOT” is seeking bail money for Dominique Maxey, who was arrested in May 2020 and charged with bank larceny.
• In another listing, Raven S. is seeking $2,000 to help pay fines after, as she wrote, “on November 13 I was arrested and detained for trying to assist a man being wrongfully assaulted by police.”
• A woman named Stephanie has raised nearly $3,000 for her daughter who was arrested in conjunction with a riot in 2020. “Tia Pugh, a 21 year old resident of Mobile, was arrested for alleged criminal mischief and inciting a riot while attending a George Floyd protest the Sunday prior; two municipal misdemeanors. She was then arrested for federal felony civil unrest for the same incident,” she wrote.
• After three suspects were arrested for vandalizing the home of a defense witness in the Derek Chauvin trial, leaving his home “smeared with animal blood” with “a severed pig’s head dumped on the front porch,” GoFundMe enabled the three self-described “community activists” to raise more than $10,000 for legal fees.
• GoFundMe allowed a campaign called “PDX Protest Bail Fund” to raise nearly $1.4 million for arrestees.
• The fundraising site has also enabled CrimethInc. to raise nearly $60,000, despite the group’s promotion of violence to an extent that even Facebook banned it.
• After Alissa Azar was indicted on a felony riot charge and multiple misdemeanor charges, including one relating to the use of tear gas and pepper spray against another person, GoFundMe helped her raise more than $6,000 for legal defense.
• When “comrades” “reclaimed” (read: took over) a hotel in Minneapolis, GoFundMe enabled the trespassers to raise more than $245,000.
• GoFundMe itself donated $500 to the Riot Kitchen, a pro-riot food truck. Eight “Riot Kitchen” members were arrested in August 2020 near Kenosha, Wis., after filling numerous gas cans and attempting to escape after police confronted them, according to law enforcement. Police also reported “helmets, gas masks, protective vests, illegal fireworks and suspected controlled substances” in the vehicles.
• GoFundMe also took to Twitter to promote a fundraiser for farmers inside Seattle’s “Capitol Hill Occupational Protest,” in which rioters overtook a police precinct and set up their own lawless compound for weeks. (Contrast that to what GoFundMe’s leftist allies are calling an “occupation” in Canada.)

There's much more at the link, but these examples amply illustrate GFM's failure to live up to its own stated principles.

Perhaps if generous donors, informed of a GFM effort on behalf of a worthwhile cause, simply found alternative ways to channel their money to the cause, GFM would realize that their pretentious and hypocritical leftist moral preening was counterproductive and just stop it.