Republican Governor sends jack-booted thugs to dissidents house to point guns at children

[RandomGuy]

Sure. Let's go with that tagline.

Rebekah Jones, a whistleblower fired for not fudging COVID data the way the fascist governor of Florida wanted, had her house raided by stormtroopers with guns drawn.

Looks like Republicans have given up any pretense of not being outright fascists.


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Florida Agents Raid Home Of Rebekah Jones, Former State Data Scientist

Florida law enforcement agents searched the home of former state data scientist Rebekah Jones on Monday, entering her house with weapons drawn as they carried out a warrant as part of an investigation into an unauthorized message that was sent on a state communications system.

"At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech," Jones said via Twitter. She added, "They were serving a warrant on my computer after DOH filed a complaint."

The Florida Department of Health is the agency that fired Jones in May, after she helped create the state's COVID-19 dashboard.

Jones has said she lost her job after she refused requests to manipulate data to suggest Florida was ready to ease coronavirus restrictions. A spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at the time that she "exhibited a repeated course of insubordination during her time with the department."

The search warrant was authorized as investigators tried to learn who sent a chat message to a planning group on an emergency alert platform, urging people to speak out publicly about Florida's coronavirus strategies.

The message stated, "it's time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead," according to member station WFSU, citing the probable cause affidavit. The message continued, "You know this is wrong. You don't have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it's too late."

Jones posted a short video of the raid online Tuesday, showing several agents entering her home, carrying pistols and at least one rifle. In the footage, Jones tells them that her husband and two children are in the house.

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/08/944200394/florida-agents-raid-home-of-rebekah-jones-former-state-data-scientist

[baseline bum]

Chris, Derp, TSAnon, and Karrin would have all been fine with her getting killed by those cops despite not being black.

[DarrinS]

Rebekah Jones, a whistleblower fired for not fudging COVID data the way the fascist governor of Florida wanted...




Is that the narrative?

[Winehole23]

Is that the narrative?Correct it...

[Winehole23]

1336528507258585089

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EouhW6IXYAAGeq3?format=jpg&name=large

[RandomGuy]

Is that the narrative?

Pretty much.

What did the fascist say he fired her for?

[hater]

Looks like Deathsantis executive involved in this raid has resigned

[Spurtacular]

Republican governors bad now.

[RandomGuy]

Republican governors bad now.

You are just fine with the government sending law enforcement in, guns drawn to silence critics.

Full on fascist at this point.

[DarrinS]

That chick is a nut job.

And she's not a data scientist.

[ElNono]

That chick is a nut job.

And she's not a data scientist.

uh?

[RandomGuy]

That chick is a nut job.

And she's not a data scientist.

Well shit, then I guess it is ok to have a governor send armed police into her house to raid it for what? a non-violent misdemeanor?

Fascism good now.

[ElNono]

I think it's a leap to blame DeathSantis for this without more information though.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Chris, Derp, TSAnon, and Karrin would have all been fine with her getting killed by those cops despite not being black.

I'd kill her parents for spelling her name wrong.

[TSA]

The FDLE said in its statement that the search warrant was issued for Jones’ Tallahassee home and it began an investigation “after receiving a complaint from the Department of Health regarding unauthorized access to a Department of Health messaging system which is part of an emergency alert system, to be used for emergencies only. Agents believe someone at the residence on Centerville Court illegally accessed the system.”

Jones denied any involvement in the hack.

“Hacking is not something I ever thought they would accuse me of because I have never displayed any capability of doing that,” she said. “I’ve never taken any computer courses or anything like that. I do statistics in a software program designed basically to do all that stuff for you by clicking stuff.”

In an affidavit signed by FDLE investigator Noel Pratt on Dec. 3, he concluded the email message was sent to approximately 1,750 accounts before it was discovered. Pratt said in the affidavit that he tracked down the IP address of the computer associated with the email and it directed him to Jones’ home address, which he said was probable cause to conduct a search of her property and seize her computers.

Jones said FDLE agents told her the Department of Health’s inspector general’s office gave them her IP address. “I guess they just signed off on that and showed up at my house with guns,’' she said.
Serving the search warrant

The FDLE said that when agents arrived at Jones’ home, “they knocked on the door and called Ms. Jones in an attempt to minimize disruption to the family.

“Ms. Jones refused to come to the door for 20 minutes and hung up on agent,’' the statement said. “After several attempts and verbal notifications that law enforcement officers were there to serve a legal search warrant, Ms. Jones eventually came to the door and allowed agents to enter.”

According to the video from inside Jones’ home, which she said she took using a camera on a bookshelf, police pointed guns at her and ordered her husband to appear. “Come outside the house,’' they commanded, asking who else was in the house. She replied it was her two children and husband.

“Come down the stairs, now,’' police shouted. “Police! Come down now.”

Jones yelled: “They just pointed a gun at my children” and that is where the video ended.

Jones said it was not true that she refused to open the door. She told the Times/Herald that the delay in opening the door has to do with her taking the time to get dressed because she feared she was going to be arrested.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/12/07/florida-police-seize-computer-of-covid-data-whistleblower/

[boutons_deux]

I think it's a leap to blame DeathSantis for this without more information though.

InSanitis already fired her, "she persisted" on his radar as somebody against his political agenda of downplaying, understating FL's pandemic.

[Winehole23]

That chick is a nut job.For refusing to manipulate COVID-19 data for Gov. DeathSantis?

[boutons_deux]

DeSantis gives his game away first saying he didn't know about the raid then saying he didn't know about it

[Winehole23]

Weak supporting evidence for the raid, an inexperienced magistrate might've signed a bullshit warrant.


"It's a thin read to just use the IP address, and it's one that we really, really discourage," said Cindy Cohn, the EFF's executive director. "An IP address is nothing, is not even remotely like a fingerprint... the reason that we worry about IP addresses is the cops will often pretend like they're a fingerprint."


Jason Lewis, an assistant professor of computer science who heads the cyber security program at Florida Southern College and a former law enforcement agent who served as an investigator for the United States Secret Service's Colorado Electronic Crimes Task Force, said the affidavit to his eyes did not sufficiently establish probable cause.


"The use of investigative resources: now, I've used that phrase before, but never like this, that is a jump," he said, referring to the language in the affidavit that ties the IP address to Jones. "To say that I have an IP address, and then through use of investigative resources, it belongs to Rebekah I would dare say that to me doesn't scream probable cause. I really don't see how, that they're showing to a reasonable person, that the facts support a crime and tying it to her."



Cybersecurity and digital rights experts also said the fact that the emergency system in question relied on a shared user name and password further complicates the case.


The username and password was shared among "multiple" users, past and present, according to the FDLE affidavit which did not specify the number of users with access.


"The idea that somebody would be immediately, or individually identifiable just sort of goes out the window with regards to a username and password. If those are all shared then holding any one person accountable based on the account details, it's not possible," said UF's Butler.



It was also revealed Wednesday that the username and password for the system are on a document that was publicly available on a Department of Health site, as first reported by Ars Technica (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/12/florida-posted-the-password-to-a-key-disaster-system-on-its-website/). As of Thursday morning that document was still online.https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2020/12/10/evidence-warrant-raid-rebekah-jones-cybersecurity-digital-rights-civil-liberties-whistleblower/3867058001/

[boutons_deux]

DeSantis gives his game away first saying he didn't know about the raid then saying he did know about it