A personal injury attorney representing Baton Rouge, La., police officers in two separate lawsuits against Black Lives Matter attempted to raise $20,000 for her cases through a crowdfunding website, but her campaign was taken down Sunday for not being within the “community guidelines around promoting harmony.”
YouCaring is an online fundraising site that bills itself as “compassionate crowdfunding—optimized for success.” People use the site to raise money for various needs, including medical expenses and funeral costs. PBS NewsHour reports that attorney Donna Grodner set up a fundraising campaign to raise funds for the two federal lawsuits she has filed on behalf of police against Black Lives Matter, both of which target activist DeRay Mckesson. YouCaring removed her campaign page Sunday.
“In alignment with our mission, we removed this fundraiser because it was not within our community guidelines around promoting harmony,” YouCaring Chief Marketing Officer Maly Ly told PBS NewsHour Weekend in an email. “We are not the right platform to air grievances, or engage in contentious disputes or controversial public opinion.”
Grodner went on to create a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe, and as of Tuesday, that campaign remained active. According to PBS, GoFundMe has not responded to its request for comment.
As previously reported on The Root, Grodner has filed two lawsuits agains Mckesson and Black Lives Matter on behalf of officers who claim the activists are responsible for injuries they received in two separate incidents.
The first lawsuit was filed in November on behalf of an unnamed officer who says he was injured during a protest of the deadly police shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., last summer.
The second lawsuit was filed July 7 on behalf of another unnamed officer and accuses Mckesson and Black Lives Matter of inciting violence that led to a gunman’s attack on officers in Baton Rouge last summer, leaving three officers dead.
The description of Grodner’s GoFundMe campaign reads:
Police officers in BatonRouge have been seriously injured by militant protesters and activist. Black Lives Matter has been named in the lawsuit. Please give to help raise money to fund the prosecution of Black Lives Matter to hold them responsible for the injuries they caused whether in whole or in part through its anit-police [sic] agenda.
She told NewsHour via email that both her YouCaring fundraiser and the subsequent GoFundMe are for the same purpose.
Ly told NewsHour in her email that YouCaring was drawing a line.
“We exist to empower people and communities to rally positive financial, emotional, and social support,” she wrote. “While different viewpoints are a part of life, you should make efforts to ensure that the content of your fundraiser does not promote discord.”
Read more at PBS NewsHour.