A Data Breach Exposed These Police Officers' 'Secret' Far-Right Donations

Man with credit card in front
Zain Murdock
May 3, 2021

After a data breach, it was revealed to the public that a host of police officers used their work emails to donate money to self-proclaimed white supremacists – including far-right activists, other officers who’ve killed Black people, and Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse. The name of one of those officers is out – and he’s in hot water.

Sergeant William Kelly donated to Rittenhouse, commenting, “You’ve done nothing wrong … Every rank and file police officer supports you.” Oh? When Kelly’s department in Norfolk, Virginia got a hold of this, he was promptly fired! Well, sort of – he can still technically appeal.

The Norfolk police department may have fired Kelly, but this isn’t a situation of just removing the “bad apple.” Thousands of dollars in donations from Kenosha officers also rolled into Rusten Shesky’s bank account – the officer who shot Jacob Blake.

Kelly wasn’t the only officer involved – he’s just the officer that got caught. We shouldn’t praise his department; they needed to sacrifice Kelly to convince the public that they actually, as Norfolk’s Police Chief recently stated, “serve and protect.”

So, what’s the point of police officers if they're not only neglecting to keep us safe, but are directly funding white supremacists who kill us? The truth: white supremacists and police officers aren’t mutually exclusive.

We have a quick favor to ask:

PushBlack is a nonprofit dedicated to raising up Black voices. We are a small team but we have an outsized impact:

  • We reach tens of millions of people with our BLACK NEWS & HISTORY STORIES every year.
  • We fight for CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM to protect our community.
  • We run VOTING CAMPAIGNS that reach over 10 million African-Americans across the country.

And as a nonprofit, we rely on small donations from subscribers like you.

With as little as $5 a month, you can help PushBlack raise up Black voices. It only takes a minute, so will you please ?

Share This Article: