GoFundMe Campaign For Fired Cop Daniel Pantaleo Raises $79K

NEW YORK — An online fundraiser has collected more than $79,000 to support the fired NYPD cop Daniel Pantaleo now that he's out of a job.

Donations to the GoFundMe campaign poured in after Pantaleo was dismissed from the Police Department Monday for putting Eric Garner in a chokehold that led to the Staten Island man's July 2014 death.

A user listed under the name R Trois set up the page on Aug. 2, the day an NYPD judge recommended Pantaleo's termination for his role in Garner's death. Some 1,562 people had donated $79,514 as of about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, putting the campaign more than halfway toward its $150,000 goal.

It's unclear exactly what the money will fund. Trois did not respond to a message seeking comment, but the campaign's description says Pantaleo has "a newborn and bills to pay."

"Mayor (Bill) de Blasio's anti-police rhetoric contributed toward the decision to fire him," its organizers wrote. "Let's help an officer in need who was only doing his job!"

While Pantaleo's lawyer welcomed the show of support, police-reform advocates called on GoFundMe to take the down the campaign aiming to help a former officer who took an unarmed man's life.

Imani Henry, the lead organizer of the activist group Equality for Flatbush, noted that Pantaleo collected a paycheck in the five years before he was fired for violating NYPD policy. His salary for the 2019 fiscal year was $85,292, according to city records.

"It’s just sort of like, 'We just want to take care of his family, he’s lost his job,' and we’re like, 'The man murdered someone,'" Henry said. (Pantaleo did not face criminal charges for his role in Garner's death.)

"No one’s going to jail, so then he’s collected five years of a salary," Henry added. "He’s been free to walk, he’s free to shop, he sees his kids."

Pantaleo lost his NYPD pension when he was fired, though the money he contributed to it over his 13 years on the force will be returned to him.

Pantaleo will be appealing his termination in court and looking for a new job, but does not have any other sources of income now, his lawyer, Stuart London, said.

"I am happy to see that there is money coming in because since he was not given his pension, he does have a wife and a child, and he’s gonna need to pay his bills," London said, adding that he was not involved with the GoFundMe campaign.

Donors to Pantaleo's cause, some of whom identified as cops, had left comments on the GoFundMe page that advocates described as racist. They included statements that Pantaleo was "just doing his job" and expressions of support for President Donald Trump, Henry said — "just incredibly horrific things without any acknowledgement that a man’s life was taken."

But those statements were gone by late Tuesday afternoon and the comment feature on the page appeared to have been disabled. Spokespeople for the site did not immediately respond to an email asking why comments were suspended and whether the campaign will be removed.

GoFundMe drew similar criticism in 2014 when it hosted a fundraiser for Darren Wilson, the police officer who infamously shot and killed an unarmed man named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri less than a month after Garner's death.

That campaign page was similarly riddled with racist comments that GoFundMe removed, but the site said that the fundraiser did not violate its terms of service, according to news reports from the time.