Marchers hold a banner reading “Justice for Nahel”, during a commemoration march for a teenage driver shot dead by a policeman, in the Pablo Picasso area of the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, on June 29, 2023, in Nanterre, France. | Source: Antoine Gyori – Corbis / Getty
A GoFundMe account created to benefit a police officer charged with the murder of an unarmed Black teenage driver in France is prompting questions about the online platform’s policies as donations surged to nearly $2 million.
According to GoFundMe’s self-described terms of service, fundraising efforts on the website cannot be intended for “the legal defense of alleged financial and violent crimes.”
MORE: GoFundMe, GiveSendGo And The White Privilege Of Raising Funds Online
The officer, who has only been identified as “Florian M,” has been formally charged with voluntary homicide in the shooting death of a 17-year-old delivery driver named Nahel M., who is reportedly of North African descent. The shooting has sparked days of unrest in and around the Paris suburb where the shooting took place on June 27.
But now, after the GoFundMe that was arranged by a person the Washington Post reported “previously served as a spokesman for former far-right presidential candidate Éric Zemmour and expressed support for law enforcement and the officer” surged, attention is being focused on the crowdfunding website and its policies that appear to have been violated.
Sleeping Giants, a social media-based group of activists in France, tweeted at GoFundMe to ask why the account for the police officer had not been deactivated for not following the explicit terms of service.
“Could you pls urgently determine whether you find the French fundraiser “Soutien pour la famille du policier de Nanterre” to be unacceptable and objectionable, as per your ToS?! Its sheer existence inflames the sentiment of injustice and furthers tensions,” Sleeping Giants said in a Twitter thread before asking: “How could you possibly ensure that none of the money raised goes towards his legal expenses?”
The message on the GoFundMe does not specifically say the funds will be used to pay for the officer’s legal defense. Instead, it says the funds are meant to “[s]upport for the family of the” French police officer “who has done his job and who is now paying a high price.”
That could be the loophole that has allowed the GoFundMe to remain live on the site, though an appended note says the “organizer has currently disabled new donations to this fundraiser.”
There are examples of GoFundMe enforcing the policy that prevents raising money for “the legal defense of alleged financial and violent crimes.”
In a recent case, Daniel Penny – the white Marine who choked unarmed homeless Black man Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway and is charged with manslaughter – was forced to set up his online legal defense fund on the GiveSendGo crowdfunding website with looser parameters. GiveSendGo also hosted an online fundraiser for Kyle Rittenhouse, whose since-acquitted murder charges from a Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin prevented him from using GoFundMe’s services to solicit donations. As Jeremy Snyder, a professor of health sciences at Simon Fraser University wrote in an op-ed last month, it’s all added up to make “GiveSendGo a home for right-wing legal causes.”
Flowers for the slain 17-year-old teenage boy Nahel M. are seen at his grave on July 5, 2023, in Mont-Valerien, near the Paris suburb of Nanterre where he was shot and killed by police. | Source: ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI / Getty
What happened to Nahel M.?
Identified as Nahel M., the young delivery driver tragically died after sustaining a gunshot wound at the scene of the fateful traffic stop. While one passenger in the vehicle was briefly apprehended and subsequently released, authorities were actively searching for another passenger who managed to flee the scene.
According to his grandmother, who spoke to a French journalist, the young victim had aspired to become a mechanic, a dream that now remains unfulfilled. Describing him as a kind and nice young man, she shared fond memories of him, reflecting the profound loss felt by his loved ones.
The shocking nature of this incident, combined with the rarity of such deadly use of force by law enforcement in France, has drawn national attention to the systemic issues plaguing the country’s marginalized communities.
The community is demanding justice and an end to the unchecked violence against them and other marginalized areas.
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GoFundMe Surges For Teen In ‘Citi Bike Karen’ Incident
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