Dan O'Donnell

Dan O'Donnell

Common Sense Central is edited by WISN's Dan O'Donnell. Dan provides unique conservative commentary and analysis of stories that the mainstream media...Full Bio

 

GoFundMe Refuses to Remove Fundraiser for Milwaukee Cop Killer

GoFundMe is refusing to remove a fundraiser for the family of Terrell I. Thompson, who shot and killed a Milwaukee Police officer early Tuesday morning.

Thompson, 19, avoided jail time for a series of hit and run crashes during a plea hearing Monday. Just hours later, he committed several armed robberies. When an officer, Peter Jerving, confronted him, Thompson shot the officer multiple times before the officer was able to return fire. Both men died.

Jerving, 37, was a four-year veteran of the Milwaukee Police Department and hailed as a fallen hero.

"Peter Jerving is a name that we will remember in Milwaukee and a name that we will honor in Milwaukee," said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson Tuesday.

Thompson was arrested for hit-and-run twice in 2021 and also had a temporary restraining order filed against him after making death threats against a woman and showing her pictures of his and his mother's guns.

On Tuesday, Thompson's mother, Tamera Brown, and aunt, Sierra Campbell, set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help pay for his funeral expenses.

"I am the mother of Terrell Thompson just wanted you to know a little bit about my son, he was a loving joyful kid full of happiness," Brown wrote on the fundraiser's page, which makes no mention of how he died or the murder he committed. "Terrell will take the shirt off his back to help a stranger. He was very well respectful to his elders. He grew up in church with a loving family. We can use all the help we can get any things is appreciated [sic]."

She then makes reference to the possibility that the Milwaukee Police Department is not being truthful, urging potential donors to "take the time and think about this young black man. We just want the truth about things and justice."

GoFundMe has not responded to multiple requests to remove the fundraiser. The company's terms of service prohibit fundraisers for "the legal defense of alleged financial and violent crimes" but are silent on funeral expenses for those who die during the commission of violent crimes.

However, in 2015 GoFundMe removed a fundraiser for Baltimore Police officers accused of misconduct in the death of Freddie Gray, saying in a statement that "GoFundMe cannot be used to benefit those who are charged with serious violations of the law."

Before his death, Thompson was charged and convicted of hit-and-run of an occupied vehicles and, had he lived, would have been charged with first degree intentional homicide, the single most serious crime under Wisconsin law.

"Why is GoFundMe allowing this?" asked one outraged Milwaukeean. "This man was a cop killer!"

In 2022, GoFundMe removed a legal defense fund for Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of all charges in connection with the self-defense shooting deaths of two men and injury of a third who were attacking him during the Kenosha riots of 2020. Many critics of the Thompson fundraiser noted the hypocrisy.

"They took down Rittenhouse's fundraiser even though he was completely innocent but keep up this one?" said one woman upset over Thompson's fundraiser. "This is extreme hypocrisy and just disgusting."

As of Wednesday afternoon, the fundraiser was still active, though it had only received three donations totaling just $90 of its $10,000 goal.

Instead of donating to that abomination of a fundraiser, we humbly urge you to give to the GoFundMe for Officer Jerving's longtime girlfriend, Megan.


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