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Covid-19 data whistleblower home raided by FL police

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Amiga, Dec 7, 2020.

  1. Amiga

    Amiga Member

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    Sounds like what drove FL's parental rights. At least she's in the right state. :D
     
  2. DonnyMost

    DonnyMost Member
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    Yeah that's just dumb as hell and obvious retaliation.
     
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  3. AroundTheWorld

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    Do we have any other source than her, a pathological liar, for what happened here?
     
  4. Xerobull

    Xerobull ...and I'm all out of bubblegum
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    Pictures of the raid, there proof of the Covid coverup. I'm sure there are public records to indicate the other items. I don't have time to research it today. You've proven to be a good internet detective, I'm sure you can find it. Or don't and prove it all wrong. /shrug
     
  5. AroundTheWorld

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  6. AroundTheWorld

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  7. Commodore

    Commodore Member

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  8. AroundTheWorld

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  9. AroundTheWorld

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  10. Xerobull

    Xerobull ...and I'm all out of bubblegum
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    Pretty good.

    It does look pretty bad. On one hand, you have the son of a crazy mom, **** don't fall far from the tree. But she also has a history of legit complaints.

    On the other, the most powerful man in the state who has a history of fascist acts hates you and has previously used the cops against you.

    I hope the kid comes out of this and they move far away from FL. Crazy and white people are like peaches and cream in Florida.
     
  11. AroundTheWorld

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    So, should the police just have ignored that her son said he was going to shoot up his school?

    What if they did and something happens?

    Do you still think what you posted above?

    Or will you acknowledge that you jumped the gun and were ****ing wrong.

    It's extremely unlikely that DeSantis had anything to do whatsoever with the police wanting to question her son (she turned him in herself, contrary to her lies).
     
  12. dmoneybangbang

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    So did Florida lie about the Covid data they were publishing or not? Eh? Maybe? Looks like Jone's claims were pretty much unsubstantiated except for they the did find gaps in the numbers reported. Doesn't mean something nefarious is going on but DeSantis certainly had the motive and means to fudge the numbers. DeSantis runs Florida like a Daley political machine so who knows.

    Florida audit of COVID-19 data finds gaps in number of cases, deaths reported
     
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  13. Xerobull

    Xerobull ...and I'm all out of bubblegum
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    Those lines are pretty damning. I didn’t jump the gun based on the information we had. It’s bad, I hope he gets help.

    Do I think there may be a little bit more focus on Jones due to her history with DeSantis? Yes. Do I think that this kid was possibly entrapped by a plant? Yes, entirely possible. But that doesn’t excuse this type of talk or behavior.

    So, was I wrong about the kid being innocent? Yeah, I was totally ****ing wrong about that. I have a teenager and they constantly do stupid **** that makes zero sense to adults, even if we did the same stupid ****.

    I do think it’s a deeper story and there are timing variables as Jones points out with her lawsuit filing. DeSantis is a bitter megalomaniac who absolutely holds a grudge. I don’t put this stuff past him.
     
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  14. Xerobull

    Xerobull ...and I'm all out of bubblegum
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    Oh, also want to say that if this is true and this kid should have been arrested and Jones knew the whole story but tried to leverage her celebrity to get her kid out of trouble and throw DeSantis under the bus, she’s lost all credibility with me. It has nothing to do with the personalities involved, that just dishonest.
     
  15. Colt45

    Colt45 Member
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    Yeah, we KNOW. :rolleyes:
     
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  16. Xerobull

    Xerobull ...and I'm all out of bubblegum
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    This **** is a hot mess.




    Jones stating that there's a paid 'cyber stalker' who is working against her family. There may be some truth to it.



    She's saying that the terroristic threats came from an account that isn't her son's:



    Story making CNN, decidedly neutral:

    Former Florida state employee’s son arrested for alleged school threats

    By Steve Contorno, CNN
    Updated 9:05 AM EDT, Fri April 7, 2023

    [​IMG]
    Rebekah Jones speaks to CNN in 2020.
    CNN
    CNN —

    The 13-year-old son of Rebekah Jones, who claimed she was fired for refusing to manipulate state Covid-19 data while working in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ state Health Department, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly threatening a shooting at a middle school.

    The boy, whom CNN is not naming because he is a minor, was charged with written or electronic threats to kill, do bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, a second-degree felony, according to a warrant issued by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office.

    In security camera video at the sheriff’s office, obtained by CNN, Jones can be seen accompanying the boy to the sheriff’s office on Wednesday afternoon, where he surrendered.

    Thursday evening, Jones, who has a sizable online following, tweeted, “My son is home with me now and sleeping.”

    She suggested, without evidence, that her son’s arrest was related to a lawsuit she filed on March 13 in Leon County, Florida, against the Florida Department of Health and a former supervisor, under the state whistleblower act, seeking to get her job back, lost wages and damages for her treatment as an employee.

    A spokeswoman for DeSantis referred questions about the arrest “to the diligent law enforcement of Santa Rosa Sheriff’s office.”

    Jones noted in a tweet that the sheriff’s office began investigating her son shortly after she filed the lawsuit. She claimed on Twitter that her son had sent “just memes” to his friends that she says were not threatening.

    But, according to police reports, multiple students at a Navarre, Florida, middle school told police that Jones’ son had told people he planned a school shooting and posted threatening memes and messages on Snapchat and Discord. One student told police that the boy told her on Discord he wanted to end his life and shoot up the school.

    After issuing a search warrant, officers said they found messages in February from the boy’s Snapchat account referencing guns and the Columbine High School massacre and plans to shoot and stab people at the school.

    During an interview with police on March 23, the boy told police he did not intend to carry out the shooting and police did not find any guns at his home. Jones told police the boy no longer attended the school and was being home schooled, according to police documents.

    CNN has reached out to the sheriff’s office for additional information on the case.

    Jones in 2020 accused the DeSantis administration of trying to cover up the extent of the pandemic and firing her for refusing to falsify numbers to minimize the scale of the outbreak. Last year, a state inspector general report said her claims were “unsubstantiated” and Covid-19 data was not falsified.

    Jones publicly shared the story of her dismissal before leaving the department in May 2020 and became a prominent online critic of DeSantis. She unsuccessfully ran for Congress last year against Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.

    In December 2020, state police executed a search warrant at Jones’ home while investigating whether she accessed a state messaging system without authorization to call for state officials to speak out about Covid-19 deaths. She was ultimately charged with one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices. In December, Jones agreed to admit guilt and pay a $20,000 fee in a pretrial deferred prosecution agreement.
     
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  17. No Worries

    No Worries Member

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    They will have their day in court. If what she is saying is anywhere near the truth, the charge will likely be dropped.
     
  18. Astrodome

    Astrodome Member

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    If a school shooting was avoided, we can't be upset at that. If he didn't send the messages I hope he is able to be a successful student.
     
  19. Xopher

    Xopher Member

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  20. Amiga

    Amiga Member

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    Sounds credible but could also be some weird mix up. Snapchat (any platform that temporary save messages to their server) isn't private.

    Here is the Miami Herald article.

    Son of Rebekah Jones, Florida whistle-blower, arrested in probe of threatening internet posts (yahoo.com)

    The 13-year-old son of a controversial Florida whistle-blower was arrested this week on charges that he made “terrorist” threats on the internet to shoot up his former school.

    The son of Rebekah Jones — who lost her job after using her access to health department data to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis’ COVID numbers early in the pandemic — was arrested Wednesday on charges he made “written [or] electronic threats” of a “mass shooting [or] terrorist act.”

    The threats reportedly were made during a series of conversations on Snapchat and Discord, an instant messaging social platform, beginning around Feb. 1. They were brought to the attention of law enforcement authorities by other teens in March.

    The teens showed deputies screenshots of memes shared by Jones’ son on Snapchat, where they said the boy had also threatened to shoot up his former middle school the week before spring break, but then said he later changed his mind, according to the arrest warrant.

    The boy was interviewed by sheriff’s deputies on March 23 and shown the memes, which he acknowledged sharing, the report said. The youth is not being named to protect his privacy.

    One meme — part of a viral series — pictures a brain with intrusive thoughts about grabbing an officer’s gun, knowing that the result could be fatal. “Every time I see school security,” the boy wrote when he sent the meme, according to the warrant.

    Authorities say he also posted another meme described in the warrant as “an individual with a shaved head holding a Hi-C drink. The message on the meme was “I’m feeling so silly I might shoot up a building full of people.”

    He told the deputies at the time he had no plans to do anything, they noted in the report. A deputy told his parents it seemed like a “teenager” thing before leaving without making an arrest, a video of the exchange showed. Deputies did not question him about the more disturbing social media posts attributed to him in this week’s arrest report.

    It’s unclear whether the deputies were aware of the messages, which were uncovered by a warrant to search his Snapchat account. The messages listed in the warrant involved threats of violence, including attacks on schoolchildren.

    Feb. 9: “I want to shoot up the school.”

    Feb. 12: “If I get a gun I’m gonna shoot up hnms lol” — an apparent reference to Holley Navarre Middle School, which the youth had previously attended.

    Feb. 12: “I always keep a knife on me so maybe I’ll just stab ppl.”

    Feb. 12: “...I have no hope in getting better, so why not kill the losers at school.”

    An unredacted version of the warrant, obtained by the Herald, shows the threatening messages were sent by a username that was different than the one Jones’ son used to send the memes.

    The document does not say how authorities determined both usernames are linked to the same account. The redacted version circulated by authorities does not reveal that there were two different usernames involved.

    Jones provided a screenshot of her son’s account, which showed he changed to his current username in January, before the threats were made. She said he has never used the handle associated with the threatening messages.

    Until his release after a court appearance Thursday, the boy was being held at the Escambia Regional Juvenile Detention Center, a 50-bed state-run lockup in Pensacola. Jones and her son live in Santa Rosa County, just east of Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.

    On Twitter Thursday morning, Jones suggested her son was arrested only for sharing well-aired memes — especially common among young people — that were critical of police and school resource officers.

    Tonya Shepherd, public information officer for the Santa Rosa County School District, declined to comment on the specifics of the case.

    “The district’s number one priority is the safety of students,” Shepherd said in a statement to the Herald. “Any notifications regarding safety concerns are thoroughly investigated by the district, and, where appropriate, referred to law enforcement.”

    Wednesday’s detention marked the boy’s first arrest. He appears to have been evaluated Wednesday at the region’s Juvenile Assessment Center, a centralized screening facility for minors who are charged with a crime.

    When asked by Circuit Judge David Oberliesen, Jones said she could not afford an attorney for her son, for whom a public defender was appointed. The youth was released to home detention with an electronic monitor. Oberliesen ordered that he have no access to the internet outside of school work. At his mother’s request, he will be allowed to play on a local soccer team.

    The youth’s arraignment was scheduled for May 3 at the Santa Rosa County Courthouse.
     

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