Reddit users contributed to the GoFundMe campaign for a Chicago disabled man who was tortured during a Facebook Live stream while his accused attackers shouted, “F*** Trump,” and, “F*** White People,” pushing donations to over $150,000.
In a post to the subreddit /r/UpliftingNews, moderator Razorsheldon posted a thread titled “Call To arms #4 – Let’s Show the Chicago Victim Some Love.” The moderator wrote in the thread, “It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these in this subreddit, but for those of you who have seen the recent horrific facebook live video of the young special needs victim tied up and getting tortured by 4 others, your immediate reaction is complete disgust and your second reaction is to want to help this young man.”
“Below is a link to a GoFundMe fundraiser with 100% of the proceeds going directly to this young man and/or his family/guardians. Let’s prove to him that there is far more good in this world than the evil he recently endured,” said Razorsheldon.
An outpouring of empathy for the young man could be seen in the comments. One user said, “It’s bad enough to gang up on someone, let alone someone with special needs. My heart goes out to him and his family.” Another user replied, “And then livestream it on top of that. Absolutely disgusting. At least they provided evidence against themselves.”
As Breitbart previously reported, GoFundMe’s regional communications manager Bartlett Jackson told the Associated Press the account is legitimate and that its creator has been working directly with the victim’s family. The fundraising campaign had reached $80,000 on January 7, and the total donations have nearly doubled in the last four days with $157,328 raised at the time of this article’s publication.
The four attackers in the incident have been arrested and bail has been denied.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart Tech covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com