Some mothers of Black sons and daughters killed by police officers are criticizing the Black Lives Matter national organization amid controversy over co-founder Patrisse Cullors’ lavish lifestyle.
“It’s all a facade,” Samaria Rice, the mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was killed by a White police officer in Cleveland in 2014, told the New York Post on Saturday.
Rice said she requested Cullors’ help in re-launching a federal investigation into her son’s death. But short of exchanging a few emails, her pleas never garnered face time with the Black Lives Matter executive director.
“They are benefiting off the blood of our loved ones, and they won’t even talk to us,” Rice said.
Cullors announced her departure after a five-year reign earlier this week following reports she had purchased four homes for $3.2 million.
Hawk Newsome, the head of Black Lives Matter Greater New York City — a separate group — called for an “independent investigation” into the national organization’s finances.
Cullors said her decision to step down was not tied to the controversy, but to instead focus on her second book and a television deal with Warner Bros.
“Now she doesn’t have to show her accountability,” Lisa Simpson, mother of 18-year old Richard Risher who was fatally shot in 2016 in Los Angeles told The Post. “She can just take the money and run.”
The mothers further accused the organization of profiting off their “dead loved ones.”
In a March statement, Rice and Simpson condemned the Black Lives Matter movement for “monopolizing and capitalizing our fight for justice.”
“We never hired them to be the representatives in the fight for justice for our loved ones murdered by police,” the mothers wrote.
The mother of Breonna Taylor, a Kentucky Black woman shot and killed by police during a raid on her home, said the group’s national standing has yet to help her following her daughter’s death.
“I have never personally dealt with BLM Louisville and personally have found them to be fraud,” Tamika Palmer wrote in an April Facebook post, The Post reported.
The Facebook message has since been removed.
Fox News could not immediately reach the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation for comment.
Thomas Barrabi contributed to this report.
