eBay founder gives nearly $2M to defund police — while funding private security startupBy Ariel Zilber
May 26, 2023
The billionaire founder of e-commerce site eBay plowed money into a private security startup billed as the “Uber for bodyguards” — while also donating nearly $2 million to groups that advocate de-funding or abolishing the police, according to a report.
Pierre Omidyar, whose wealth is valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $8.91 billion as of Friday, reportedly forked over $500,000 to organizations that protested the police-involved killing of George Floyd in 2020 through his charitable group, the Omidyar Network.
Two other organizations tied to the Omidyar Network — PolicyLink and Democracy Fund — received $1.3 million to sponsor a website called DefundPolice.org, a tool used by advocates to call for cuts to police budgets, according to independent journalist Lee Fang.
The Omidyar Network donated $300,000 to The Movement for Black Lives, an organization that describes itself as an “abolitionist” coalition, reported Fang, who prior to becoming an independent journalist worked for years as a reporter for The Intercept, a news site founded by Omidyar.
“When we say ‘defund and abolish the police,’ we mean exactly that,” the Movement for Black Lives wrote in a recent statement.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/05/26/ebay-founder-pierre-omidyar-gives-nearly-2m-to-defund-police/