Following the stabbing murder of Ryan Carson in New York City this week, a GoFundMe page has raised over $67,000 not for funeral costs, but so friends of the deceased activist can take “time off work to properly mourn.”
Carson, 32, a “social justice activist” from Brooklyn, was randomly stabbed to death early on Monday night as he and his girlfriend were coming back from a wedding. In surveillance footage released by NYPD, a man, currently suspected to be 18-year-old Brian Dowling, can be heard shouting “I’ll kill you,” before tussling with Carson and stabbing him in the chest three times.
Dowling was arrested today and charged with second-degree murder and criminal weapons possession. Dowling was previously described as “mentally disturbed” by an aunt in a July 911 call related to destroying his girlfriend’s apartment.
Following his death, friends of Carson, who was allegedly a self-described member of “antifa,” told the Gothamist that he would have wanted them to use his slaying to talk about “structural wrongs in the city.”
“I’m absolutely positive that he would immediately see that this was a person who was suffering from a lack of resources in our community, who probably needs better mental health support, possibly housing, possibly drug support, drug treatment,” said New York Assembly member Emily Gallagher.
A GoFundMe page has been created on behalf of Carson’s girlfriend, Claudia Morales, under the category of “funerals and memorials,” in order to help ease “the burden and stress of this horrifying situation.” However, instead of raising money for funeral costs, the priority is to allow friends of Carson “space and time to grieve,” and that the money will go to “offset the costs of working class people taking time off of work to properly mourn.”
Many social media commentators were shocked at the supposed purpose of the GoFundMe page. “This is incredible. I heard about the Ryan Carson GoFundMe and assumed it was for funeral costs. Nope. His friends are raising money for themselves,” said Daily Wire presenter Matt Walsh.
“A part of me kinda feels bad for Ryan Carson,” added Reduxx editor-in-chief Anna Slatz stated on her X page.
“He got stabbed. His gf just watched on, looking annoyed the whole time and wouldn’t even help catch his killer. Now his ‘friends’ are grifting vacations of his death. Liberalism won’t just kill you, it will cannibalize your corpse.”
Further discourse arose online when some celebrated the death of Carson for supposedly advocating for the pro-crime policies that led to his death. Other social media users were critical of those that mocked his demise, labelling them “cruel.”
A tweet from an account that appears to Carson’s was later discovered, showing him celebrating the death of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, writing “lmao hell yeah” in response to the news in 2021.
