A lot of people here are getting into the legal casuistry, which might count as a mildly interesting academic exercise in normal times but clearly misses the point right now. In terms of actual ethics and culpability, this nazi fucking thug is a stone-cold murderer. The main reason for this is that he killed Renee Good not out of an actual or perceived need to defend himself but clearly out of anger. But also:
The Trump regime is illegitimate and criminal. If you are participating in any aspect of government that furthers its evil aims, then you are morally culpable.
Further, ICE is a criminal organization engaged in manifestly immoral and terrorist activities. Anyone in ICE or supporting ICE is a criminal and culpable for its collective depredations and atrocities.
ICE is manifestly out and about looking for trouble and conflict. Once this is the attitude, parsing fine-grained points about LEO self-defense is irrelevant.
When the felon president and his coterie of criminals are purposely eroding the rule of law, then arguing whether masked thugs are following the letter of the law with respect to self-defense is particularly pointless.
Trump is a demented dying old man, and the criminals surrounding him like Noem are morons without even enough sense to advance their own criminal interests, which would involve smoothing over their criminal activity and propagandizing in favor of it. Rather, they are so used to, and take such pleasure in, trolling and antagonizing the majority of American citizens that they just can’t get off the kick. I dearly hope they have as much fun now that they have triggered the start of a national uprising against their reign.
The murder was caught on video from several angles in including what led up to it, there are innumerable eye witnesses, and the murderer recorded himself calling the victim a “fucking bitch* after shooting her in the head. None of that evidence is controlled by the Feds.
It is typically the case in a murder investigation that the accused and their co-conspiritors don’t cooperate with the investigation or hand over any damning evidence they have. It does not usually mean the investigation is unable to proceed.
Not that it’s guaranteed to end up in a conviction but that the feds not cooperating is not going to mean no evidence is available to the state investigation. There is a mind blowing amount of damning evidence in this case. If it fails it will be because of some other manner of legal shithousery by the feds and/or the accused. If they successfully manage to bring a murder case in front of a jury it will likely get a conviction.
If this wasn’t a cop who did the murdering (I know, not really a cop) the DA could have an indictment ready in 24 hours or so. Not a complicated case. Certainly, not 100% chance of conviction, but I’d say they have probable cause to charge right now.
That’s a blatant violation of the GoFundMe policies.
You agree that you will not use the Services or Platform to raise funds, establish any Fundraiser, or post any User Content for the purposes of promoting or involving:
the legal defense of financial and violent crimes, including those related to money laundering, murder, robbery, assault, battery, sex crimes or crimes against minors;
It’s for the legal defense of a violent crime. There is no wiggle room here.
It’s not nice, it’s dumb. Don’t give money, aid, or comfort to these people. Rant at them for free! They’re going to listen to your money and not your words.
Update: I kind of get it, but “murder” is used outside strict legal definitions. I mean, you can call someone a murderer (or a rapist or whatever) without their having been convicted in a court of law, etc.
Which is great, but I want to put this Nazi’s ass in prison, forever, forever.
That’s a legal issue not a moral issue, and not a fucking “mildly interesting academic exercise”, it’s the only way it can happen.
To follow up, GoFundMe sent an email starting with:
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Our Trust & Safety team will be investigating the fundraiser and taking appropriate action. Please note, your report will remain confidential and will not be shared with the fundraiser organizer or beneficiary.
It goes on to say that I won’t know the details of any investigation.
And I just now remembered, I think GoFundMe did the same thing for Rittenhouse, and sure enough, they did.
The statement went on to say that once charges of violent crime were brought against Rittenhouse in 2020, the company removed any active fundraisers that were started for his legal defense in compliance with their Terms of Service.
Now, no charges have come against Ross, though I did point out in my report that there is no question that the GoFundMe recipient killed someone, and there is an investigation into it, and the person who started that fundraiser explicitly stated that they are raising money for Ross in the wake of this “1000 percent justified” killing. So I don’t know if they will shut it down now, or wait until formal charges are filed.