According to a claim that was recently made by the founder of a security business, Brett Christenson, the notion of campaigning for the defunding of the police while also being able to afford personal protection that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week is incongruous.
A billionaire, it’s been claimed, has done that.
An independent journalist claims to have unearthed evidence that the billionaire founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, supplied financial assistance to activist organizations campaigning for the total abolition of law enforcement or the defunding of law enforcement agencies. In addition, the founder also put a large amount of money into firms that dealt with private security.
According to the organization’s tax filings, the Movement for Black Lives was given around $300,000 in funding from the Omidyar Network during the same year. According to the information provided on its website, the abolitionist movement advocates for the abolition of the police, prisons, and any other institutions that inflict violence on people of African descent.
Independent writer Lee Fang claims that Omidyar, whose fortune is estimated by Bloomberg to be $9.81 billion, offered financial assistance to anti-police organizations in the wake of the death of George Floyd in 2020.
In June 2020, foundations associated with the billionaire stated that they would donate $500,000 to frontline groups battling to defend and promote the lives of black people.
According to Fang’s report, the Omidyar Network contributed an extra $1.3 million to be split between two groups to sponsor the website DefundPolice.org.
Additionally, on his own time, Omidyar was making private investments in businesses capitalizing on the growing need for security services. Omidyar was named one of Bond’s most prominent investors. Bond is a New York-based firm that likens itself to “Uber for bodyguards,” the company mentions Omidyar specifically. In its marketing brochures for 2020, Bond referred to both rising levels of social instability and criminal activity.
According to Fang, Omidyar has also invested in the artificial intelligence-based security camera system known as Deep Sentinel.
It sounds like there is big money in rising crime, which a lack of police would most definitely exacerbate.
