Were the Ferguson protests a spontaneous expression of community outrage or an orchestrated campaign with paid "protesters"? It's looking more and more like the latter.
Early on, there were signs that protests over the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white cop were less than meets the eye.
In December, IBD noted that most of the protesters getting arrested weren't local residents but people bussed in from groups like the New Black Panthers, the U.S. Human Rights Network and the ANSWER Coalition.
Later, after the riots in Baltimore erupted, Fox News reported that as many as 50 social media accounts were tied to both those and the Ferguson protests, suggesting the presence of "professional protesters."
Now some of the "protesters" themselves are complaining that they never got paid.
In mid-May, Millennial Activists United organized a sit-in at the Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment offices. The reason: MORE owed the protesters money.
The group complained that MORE "created a joint account in which national donors from all over the world have donated over $150,000 to sustain the movement," but "the poor black people of this movement ... have seen little to none of that money."
A letter posted by the group went on to claim, "Organizers and protesters depleted $50,000 of the available funds and dispersed it among the people in the movement in no particular order." They even started a Twitter hashtag to encourage MORE to cough up the money: #cutthecheck.
There's nothing wrong with protesters getting paid. It's a free country, and they have to make a living, too. But maybe these protesters should think about joining a union before they hit the streets next time.
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