Black Lives Matter has always been a radical Marxist group. Its militant streak has always been present, but people were so upset about the death of George Floyd that many gave them money without realizing who they were.
And these brazen activists raised money hand over fist, saying funds would go toward their cause.
But now the truth is coming out, and one well-known BLM activist just went to jail after committing a major crime that she couldn’t deny.
UK BLM member jailed for fraud
Black Lives Matter is not just an American organization, it also has several branches in other countries including the UK.
One founding member of a BLM offshoot called All Black Lives Bristol, Xahra Saleem, was just jailed for two and a half years after pleading guilty to fraud.
Saleem, born Yvonne Maina, was found guilty of stealing £32,344 in charitable donations raised by the organization.
The donations were supposed to go to a local children’s group called Changing Your Mindset, which planned to use the money to fund a trip to Africa for disadvantaged children in the area.
Saleem is well-known to locals because she was instrumental in organizing a protest that ended with the statue of Sir Edward Colston being torn down and thrown into the Bristol Harbor.
Now, she was found guilty of taking the donations to her organization and spending them on herself, buying everything from a new computer and an iPhone to takeout food and beauty products.
She also spent £5,800 of the donations on Uber taxi rides for almost one full year, according to The Times of London.
Saleem appeared in court wearing a Hijab and was told that she had abused the trust of her charity, causing “serious detriment to the victims.”
The court discovered Saleem had given Changing Your Mindset several excuses as to why she couldn’t hand over the money that was raised through GoFundMe donations.
First, she insinuated that “some of the people the charity had worked with had made homophobic comments.”
Later, the activist said that she spent time in the hospital for psychosis and that the money was gone.
She told the group, “I am so sorry, I am trying to understand my actions as well. I take full responsibility . . . as my actions have consequences, I don’t want to pardon myself from them.”
But the lies kept coming.
She told the charity she planned to turn herself in to the police, but when she didn’t, she was finally arrested by Avon and Somerset Police in July of 2021.
Saleem admitted guilt to a friend
One month before her arrest, Saleem sent a message to a friend saying that she had “done something horrendous” and that the friend couldn’t tell anyone until she had “sorted it out.”
She continued, “I get really bad psychosis which I have mentioned to psychiatrists. This charity asked me to hold money for them, God knows why. Let’s just say my brain spent it. I can’t tell you what, where or why. I don’t know what I spent it on.”
Sadly, a member of the charity claims that it has since shut down after the money was stolen.
Deneisha Royal of Changing Your Mindset said, “It doesn’t feel that justice has been fully served as we are unlikely to get back the money from her selfish actions. It feels like we are being punished. It saddens me that a member of our community could do this to us because they knew and understood the goal we set out to achieve in order to positively change our community.”
Saleem helped to organize a protest in Bristol after the death of George Floyd, which resulted in the removal and destruction of a statue of 17th-century merchant and parliamentarian Sir Edward Colston.
Now, it looks like she has a year or two to sit and think about the things she’s done.
