Gilberton police Chief Mark Kessler likely won't go hungry during his 30-day suspension over his foul-mouthed YouTube videos in which he shoots off automatic guns.
His supporters are pledging money - likely more than he would have made at his $15.25-an-hour job had council not doled out the monthlong punishment.
His website links to a crowd-funding platform that a supporter set up the day he was suspended to solicit donations to cover Kessler's grocery bills and mortgage. So far, $3,180 of a $10,000 goal was promised to Kessler's cause, which is labeled "accidents and emergencies," on the GoFundMe.com site.
It's unclear whether Kessler, who did not return a telephone call Wednesday, received any money yet but his website carries the embedded crowd-funding site and carries this message:
"Your donation will help the chief pay his bills - buy groceries to feed his kids - pay the mortgage, etc. It's time to be counted patriots - He stood for us, now it's time we stand with him! 'Freedom isn't FREE.' "
An explanation on the crowd-funding site states that the money would also pay legal expenses.
Kessler's attorney, Joseph Nahas, Frackville, declined to comment, saying he did not know about the crowd-funding campaign.
"My job is to protect his job," Nahas said. "I don't get involved with what a client does or does not to gain money lost. I don't advise him on that."
Michael Morrill, who heads the Keystone Progress advocacy group that called for Kessler's ouster, has seen the site.
"I wish him well financially. It gives him some source of money," Morrill said. "I think this is a way for him to move into what he really wants to do, which is not law enforcement but political advocacy. This will allow him to do it."
Kessler, who uses social media and a web-based radio show to tout gun rights, has cast his suspension as a freedom of speech and right to bear arms issue. His mission corralled more than 100 supporters - some with semi-automatic guns - to turn out for the July 31 borough meeting where he was officially suspended.
The borough council has said it suspended him because he used borough-owned guns in the video.
But messages from donors show that they believe the suspension was about something much larger, using phrases such as "standing up to government tyranny."
The fundraising has raised the eyebrows of crowd-funding expert Robert Hoskins.
It's "not really the purpose of crowd-funding," said Hoskins, who runs Front Page Public Relations Inc. in Austin, Texas. "Crowd-funding should be used for social good, not unemployment."
The funding platform, which got its start with social causes, has exploded over the last couple of years. The pleas out there range from people planning a vacation or funeral to treatment for terminally ill patients.
Some Pennsylvania scientists are using it to help fund a project, and Raleigh, N.C., is exploring using it to fund park benches, public art and bike racks. A Bethlehem tri-athlete, Katie Pulizzano, is using it to compete with Team USA next month. She's a little more than halfway to her goal of $4,000, she said.
The idea is to collect small sums of money from a lot of people who support a project that emotionally resonates with them.
Haskins said the mechanism works well when people have their own "skin in the game," for example, an obese woman who sheds the weight and borrows $19,000 for surgery to remove the loose skin.
"She turns to crowd-funding to raise the extra $9,000 she needs to complete the process," he said. "People donate to her campaign because she needs it and has a lot of her own skin in the game."
While the sites work differently, the goal is to try to attract donors to make wishes come true, a sort of souped-up gift registry. A user sets up a page to identify the cause - social, personal or business - and make a case as to why it's important. It can be promoted on Twitter, Facebook and other types of social media. Like any fundraising tool, there could be rewards for donating.
Interest in crowd-funding has exploded. According to Massolutions, a research firm monitoring the industry, $2.7 billion was collected from 1 million campaigns around the globe last year. That was an 81 percent increase over the previous year thanks in part to President Barack Obama raising the profile of the funding mechanism when he signed the JOBS bill
"The reason we think crowd-funding has become so popular is because people want new ways to fund their dreams and passion projects. Everyone has a dream and may be apprehensive about going to a bank or private investor for a large sum of money," said Paul Freeman, chief financial officer of crowd-funding platform CrowdIt.
Catherine Wilson, a Villanova University associate political science professor, said crowd-funding "has the potential to build social capital by relying on the strength of online communities."
"From financing unpaid internships, to craft beer, to the arts and culture sector in the United States, crowd-funding has grassroots appeal," Wilson said. "And while the immediate payoff to the individual investor is varied, crowd-funding can offer benefits such as donor recognition, pre-ordering of product and the ability to be part of a new social venture from its execution to implementation."
However, the platform is still in its infancy.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said crowd-funding sites offer potential benefits to raise money for worthy causes but the platform can be exploited and misused, just like someone canvassing door-to-door or on the telephone.
While Pennsylvania has prosecuted no crowd-funding sites, the Attorney General's Office warns potential donors not to trust what the campaign purports to be and do a little research before giving.