Police Violence and the Urgency for Bitcoin in Crowdfunding
In his “Good Cop” video for a crowdfunding campaign, activist and hip-hop artist Rob Hustle criticized police violence and corruption, calling for an end to their injustices. He challenged the popular meme that cop violence results from just a few bad apples, and argued instead the whole barrel is chalk full rotten fruit.
He would be right.
Police violence has been happening often and recorded on a near daily basis by bystanders, and now the pile of evidence against the whole institution is mounting—but the problem is not just false arrests or “brutality.” Cops murder people. They have been killing people for no reason, and getting away with it by claiming they were “in danger.” Their rampant bloodlust has now reached proportions of wholesale butchery, especially regarding black people, but it is not limited to race. Everyone is at risk of being gunned down by an officer. The true war is not one of skin color, then. It is all-inclusive. It is the people VS police. So not only has the evidence piled high. The body bags have started to accumulate.
Integrate Cryptocurrency into Your Website
An issue with this escalating violence is it is tough for activists to adequately and financially combat the system. They have donors who want to enable them to crusade against law enforcement and government, but this is difficult for those involved. Why? The popular crowdfunding businesses have made Bitcoin donations inaccessible. They have not integrated Bitcoin payment methods for the people who need funds, or those who want to give them.
On Indiegogo and Gofundme, as well as other sites, if a person wants to accept Bitcoin donations they have to display their public key or QR code in the body of the page. In reality, there should be a built-in mechanism for ease of accepting Bitcoin.
Roger Ver is one such philanthropist. He enjoys donating Bitcoin to activists, but has not been able to do it easily, and has had to instruct people to publish addresses to accept the currency. This is a frustrating and time consuming process that could be easily remedied. Similarly, Mr. Hustle could not receive Bitcoin donations through Indiegogo. He had to place his address and QR code within the body of his campaign. Had Mr. Ver not been paying attention or not actively seeking to help him, this would have made donating a $1,000 in Bitcoin to the “Good Cops” campaign difficult.
Mr. Hustle has been raising funds to create the “Good Cops” music video. It will help hammer the point home that there is no such thing as a good cop. That is why he needs easy access to Bitcoin assistance via integration into these crowdfunding sites.
There have been some rumors that Indiegogo is working on integrating a Bitcoin client. But they have not confirmed this, and while they drag their feet, activists may not be receiving the funds they desperately need. How many donors might want to donate cryptocurrency only? Perhaps a lot. How many philanthropists have the time and patience to ask activists to post QR codes and public keys? Probably not very many.
More Evil Cops and Other Activists in Need
There was another police violence incident that had a similar donation issue. It involved Michale Hoffman, who is a correspondent for PINAC, or Photography is Not a Crime. On August 12, 2014, he was simply walking on Jacksonville International Airport property to do a Public Records Request, and a brigade of costumed thugs promptly arrived and asked him to leave. He refused, citing his Constitutional rights. After quite a long argument, where Mr. Hoffman was threatened repeatedly, he was finally arrested and then underwent an expensive and unfair court case.
As a result of the expensive fees, Mr. Hoffman started a crowdfunding campaign on Gofundme. He suffered the same problem as Mr. Hustle. There was no option for him to accept Bitcoin within the company’s webpage. He has had to post it within the body of his campaign. Again, how many potential donors may not see this? And how many potential recipients may not even know about Bitcoin? An embedded application solve this issue.
Mr. Hoffman said this about his financial situation, “I would like to leave you with this. First is about how the donations could help me. Well to say the least is the $30,000+ legal bill not including the appeal. I also lost a very good paying job over this and for several months was unemployed. Also, the money would enable me to focus more on my activism instead of working 3 jobs to catch up and pay my legal bill.”Problems like these mean crowdfunding businesses have to make their services accessible to people who need Bitcoin. They have to step it up. The market is changing. Bitcoin is on the scene as a promising currency. Without cryptocurrency accessibility on donation pages, activists cannot challenge tyranny and press back against police violence in the most efficient manner.This is dire. Not only do Mr. Hustle and Mr. Hoffman need help. There are a ton of people like them who need aid, especially if they are beset by crippling court costs and attorney fees, or they need their particular mode of activism funded. Regardless, just remember these are the people on the front lines. These are the people cleaning up the streets. They are the ones challenging the criminals called police. They are the modern heroes who are helping cull the rotten apples. And hopefully, when they are finished, they would have burned the whole damn barrel.
Give these people access to Bitcoin.
How do you feel about bitcoin being able to bridge the crowd funding gap?
Image source:
freedomlovin.com
facebook.com/robhustle
NVcopblock.org
