Saturday, December 12, 2020

“Social media is mightier than Gov. DeSantis's guns“

 That’s the title of this piece I just wrote for The Hill.  You can read the whole thing here: https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/529939-social-media-is-mightier-than-gov-desantiss-guns

From the introduction:

You would think we’ve all gotten used to seeing crazy things caught on camera and posted to social media. But, no… it seems every day there’s something more outrageous and jaw-dropping than the day before. The insane video for this week shows law enforcement officers pointing guns at a scientist’s husband and two small children inside their home.

That’s right — a battery of police officers in bullet proof vests drew their guns at Rebekah Jones’s house on Monday morning while executing a search warrant to seize her electronics.

Jones, a former employee of Florida’s Department of Health, must have been suspected of some pretty bad stuff to necessitate this drastic action, right? Murder? RICO? Robbery?

Nope.

She has been accused of sending an unauthorized email to the State Emergency Response Team that said: “Speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. 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 denies sending the email. But even if there were irrefutable proof that she had, this “investigation” involved a non-violent “crime” and a non-violent “suspect.” I put those words in quotes because… come on. This doesn’t seem like a real investigation into a real crime. It seems a lot more like pay back (more of which in a moment). Even a high-ranking and life-long Republican stepped down from his political post because of this “case.”

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jones was not a sciences.

Michael Tarre said...

David - keep speaking out about this crazy lawlessness Desantis and Moody are encouraging. Yours is voice that needs to be heard. Thanks

Anonymous said...

If they charge her, imagine what they would have to turn over as favorable on punishment. If i represented her, I'd write a draft motion to compel brady and watch the state chicken out. What a shit show youn could have with a case like this....itd be like a state FOIA for covid response info on steroids.

Anonymous said...

Jones is grifter bullshit artist. She hasn't whistleblown jackshit, but she has raised $500,000 online from dipshit Desantis haters. Did you write that article before FDLE released complete bodycam footage of the search? Because it showed she lied about what the agents did, just like she lied about sending the email, just like she lied about the state hiding data. You forgot to mention she refused to answer the door for 20 minutes and hung up on the agents. I would have drawn my gun before going into that lying nutjob's house, too. Jones "is trying hard to save the state of Florida"? Hooh, boy. Sucker.

Robert Kuntz said...

Sorry, but the bodycam footage is pretty definitive here: This was not a "raid." As noted above, this woman is on the grift -- and doing darned well at it: She has raised $500,000 (for WHAT exactly?) off of her wildly inaccurate accounting of events?

DeSantis has been excoriated for his Covid response while Cuomo is lionized. But the the only figures that matter (NY 183 deaths per 100K (second highest in the nation); FL, half that, at 92 [see the link below]) demonstrate that, insofar as we're going to ascribe credit or blame to state governors, DeSantis is doing the far better job. [All while, evidently, doing at least a little less to cripple the economy here than Cuomo has in NY.]

The only possible explanation for the contrary narrative is blind partisanship. But then, blind partisanship has driven most of the conversation for the past year that should have been driven by epidemiology, economics, and other -- ya know -- factual concerns.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covid19-death-rates-us-by-state/

Anonymous said...

@RobertKuntz: What's your take on the Sun Sentinel's article today about the reported Florida COVID-19 deaths?

David Oscar Markus said...

Thanks for commenting Robert and for actually signing your name to your comments. I am not a fan of the government retaliating against someone for speaking out and that's what I was writing about here. Whether you think she is actually right or not or which Governor is doing the better job, we should not send armed law enforcement to someone's house at the crack of dawn because we don't like what they are saying. And it's pretty clear that's what happened here.

Robert Kuntz said...

Fair enough David, and where I think that's what's happening, I'm with you completely. [In the balance between the liberty to speak and the exercise of state power, I think you know where I come down.] I'm just less than certain that's what's happened here, and the way Jones mischaracterized and then capitalized on the events makes me, at best, dubious. [And yeah -- if I'm going to comment, I'm going to sign my name.]

Anonymous at 10:28, I used to work with Cindy Goodman back at the Miami Review some 25+ years ago when we were both reporters. She's an outstanding reporter and her story today ("A mysterious gap in COVID-19 deaths appeared in Florida before the presidential election") is important stuff. Of course, correlation isn't causation, and I'm not certain the only explanation is that there were shenanigans by the governor. If there were, though, that will be made explicit soon enough. One thing we learned back in the day is that anything three people know, a reporter can learn. If this was juking the figures, the story will be tied up soon enough.