[HN Gopher] Arrest warrant issued for ex-Florida data scientist ...
___________________________________________________________________
Arrest warrant issued for ex-Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones
Author : chha
Score : 241 points
Date : 2021-01-17 14:39 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.tampabay.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.tampabay.com)
| stevespang wrote:
| Obvious attempt to censor a whistleblower who is exposing the
| Florida Deep State Gov't.
| chha wrote:
| She's been released it seems, but has been "Censored by the state
| of Florida until further notice." according to her twitter feed.
|
| https://twitter.com/GeoRebekah/status/1350862633264672772
| LocalH wrote:
| >After she was fired, Jones started her own online COVID-19
| dashboard. But she said Saturday that she may no longer be
| allowed access to computers, the internet or other electronic
| devices as a condition of her release from jail pending trial.
|
| In the modern day, with so much that is online or involving
| computers, this should be considered unjust punishment, the likes
| of which should be reserved only for _child molesters_.
|
| Not speaking to the rest of the story. However, this by itself
| troubles me.
| mjevans wrote:
| I'd draw the line at supervised access to conversation with
| normal people at: if someone is in jail maybe (this is a
| DIFFERENT debatable topic, beyond this context) their other
| rights are also suspended during the sentence.
|
| Someone whom is not in jail, who is otherwise allowed to
| participate in society; abridging their rights of freedom of
| speech, expression, and discourse with others? That seems over-
| broad.
| PicassoCTs wrote:
| IOT - so if she uses some chipped sneaker to count steps, she
| is in violation. Now that is a law that nobody can follow in
| modern times. Ring a door bell at a neighbour - you are in
| violation.
| sp332 wrote:
| If she were providing a bogus view of the pandemic, there could
| be consequences for public health. That doesn't seem to
| actually be the case as far as I can tell, but the magnitude of
| the punishment seems about right for the alleged crime.
| TomSwirly wrote:
| If this were the case, the whole Trump Administration and
| most Republican governors would be getting decades in jail.
| wkearney99 wrote:
| Well, we can hope, can't we?
| 13415 wrote:
| I suppose you're being cynical or are joking. Literally
| millions of US citizens would have to be arrested if that was
| crime. AFAIK, she's being arrested for having accessed
| government databases after she had been fired, or something
| similar to that for which she was not fully authorized.
| pjc50 wrote:
| Providing a bogus view of the pandemic is mainstream US
| politics. You only get this kind of repressive treatment if
| you've embarrased the government, in this case the state of
| Florida.
| [deleted]
| cronix wrote:
| How about blacklisting people from monetary/financial services
| such as banks and credit card co's based on their political
| views? That goes even further.
|
| https://spectator.us/topic/financial-blacklisting-sargon-akk...
|
| https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/02/27/financial-blacklis...
| walrus01 wrote:
| As shown by the well known bastion of unbiased, neutral,
| apolitical news... _Breitbart_.
|
| Quite honestly this looks like a toxic, bigoted individual.
| I'm absolutely unsurprised that some organizations choose not
| to do business with him.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Benjamin
| cronix wrote:
| So, you don't like him, but that has nothing to do with the
| principle of banning people from society based on legal
| speech which is the point I'm making. This sort of behavior
| is toxic to society at large, and so are the implications.
| I'm glad your political views are of the correct
| sort....today. Oh, wikipedia.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| If you become a public figure based on a toxicity and
| bigotry businesses may not want to be associated with
| you.
|
| Patreon is not a bank. Patreon didn't even exist a few
| years ago. They are a middle man to collect money using
| other middle men. They don't even have a monopoly on
| this.
|
| This person is also not a US citizen.
| TomSwirly wrote:
| > that has nothing to do with the principle of banning
| people from society based on legal speech
|
| Your comment is bizarre and nonsensical. No one has been
| "banned from society" based on "legal speech", a
| meaningless phrase.
|
| A lot of people have been banned from using specific
| internet services because they used them to make threats
| of violence, or to tell dangerous lies about COVID.
|
| This isn't "banning them from society". Get a grip!
|
| Also, we are talking two classes of people here:
|
| * people who work against humanity to spread COVID-19
| based on a pack of obvious lies
|
| * people who wish to violently overthrow the elected US
| government based on a pack of obvious lies
|
| and frankly, these people can get fucked. They are
| destroying the country and the planet, and they deserve
| every single penalty the law can give them.
|
| If private corporations, which Republicans claim to love,
| use their perfectly legal power to stop doing business
| with horrible psychopaths, then good for them.
|
| One side went crazy, and now we have to choose sides.
|
| Are you on the side of the delusional hateful lawbreaking
| violent psychopaths, or with the majority?
|
| (My theory - you are not with the majority.)
| walrus01 wrote:
| Think of the financial institution that chooses not to do
| business with him as a bakery, and sargon is a gay
| wedding cake.
|
| Banned from society? I was unaware that you're "banned
| from society" because private business Patreon doesn't
| want a relationship with you.
| ZoomerCretin wrote:
| The modern examples of a gay couple being refused service
| is a poor example. They can't just go to the other
| financial institutions, because all of them have black-
| listed them. An Internet business cannot feasibly operate
| on cash alone.
|
| Just like any farmer in the 1800s can just go lay his own
| railroad tracks across the continent, every website that
| hosts wrongthink is equally capable of creating their own
| banks, payment processors, data centers, and internet
| connections. These businesses aren't restaurants. They're
| critical, privatized infrastructure.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| What banks was he black listed from?
| pjc50 wrote:
| People were banned from financial services for growing weed
| and being sex workers, largely at the request of the right.
| And now the right is complaining this is coming back to them.
| temp8964 wrote:
| The equivalent would be advocating for "growing weed and
| being sex workers".
| tyingq wrote:
| It is curious that this sort of restriction is possible. I
| don't think I could pay most of my monthly bills without the
| internet, for example. I assume there's also many jobs that
| require home internet.
| snypher wrote:
| As a condition of pretrial release for a presumed innocent
| party, even _accused_ child molesters should have access to a
| computer.
| [deleted]
| CapitalistCartr wrote:
| While the State has handled this case wrong, she is _not_
| innocent in this. She made a bunch of drama about her
| interpretation of the data, which was, at best, no better than
| the State 's method, and more likely, she was flat-out wrong. She
| is mostly a drama queen making a crazy mess.
| tyingq wrote:
| _" not innocent"_
|
| Like criminally not innocent? Not clear on what you mean hear.
| jkhdigital wrote:
| My interpretation is that she's not the whistleblower she
| claims to be, and in fact has unfairly cast a dark shadow
| over the work of everyone else involved in Florida's Covid-19
| dashboard through her accusations.
|
| Honestly, I think she was just attributing sinister motives
| to fairly inane bureaucratic decisions about data and
| reporting. But once she decided to go on CNN and lob
| accusations, this whole fiasco turned into a political
| Rorschach test that is completely unmoored from the
| underlying reality.
| raphlinus wrote:
| I've been watching with some interest, and feel like I
| don't know anywhere near the whole story. We all look for
| "good guys" and "bad guys" to make sense of a narrative,
| but I come away with the feeling that Ms Jones is not
| solidly in the former camp. One data point I have for this
| is the way she tears down others who are doing their best
| work, for example a very public feud with Emily Oster:
| https://twitter.com/GeoRebekah/status/1344067350216265729
|
| We have some serious work to do. I'm very hopeful that
| we're going to have a very solid team at the national
| leadership level in 3 days, after a year of a vacuum, but
| I'm still concerned about state and local levels. I don't
| think these types of personality fights are very helpful.
| CapitalistCartr wrote:
| The State of Florida has handled the case in a Hollywood-
| level of bungling, thuggish ineptitude. Both sides in this
| case are dirty. As an active Floridian, I've followed the
| Covid numbers closely, and at first her story was deeply
| worrying. But her actual data arguments are idiotic. She
| doesn't understand data analysis at all. Meanwhile the State
| acts like the Mafia. Ron DeSantis has been one of the dumber
| governers we've had, and that's saying something. Regardless
| of her, I'd love to see him impeached over this.
| [deleted]
| selimthegrim wrote:
| Can you give an example of one of her idiotic arguments?
| kordlessagain wrote:
| Spoken like a true sexist.
| MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
| Calling a woman a drama queen is not sexist. Just like
| calling a dumb man a meathead.
|
| It would be sexists to say "all women are drama queens."
| Police some other type of derogatory remark elsewhere please.
| You're adding nothing to the conversation.
| craigching wrote:
| Do we really need the derogatory remarks in the first
| place?
| mythrwy wrote:
| That's a separate, (but important) topic.
| lawnchair_larry wrote:
| You should take a look at her previous run-ins with the law.
| Definitely an unstable individual who has a history of
| victimizing others.
| Kim_Bruning wrote:
| Is there any way in which people can help her here?
| tyingq wrote:
| She does appear to have legal representation with the right
| kind of experience. Stephen Dobson, from this firm
| https://www.ddslaw.net/Attorneys/ will be her criminal defense
| lawyer. She's also already filed a civil case.
|
| A sibling comment is linked to her GoFundMe, which appears to
| be about halfway to it's 500k goal.
| Grazester wrote:
| I believe this is her gofundme
|
| https://www.gofundme.com/f/DefendScience
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| firstSpeaker wrote:
| Anyone has the facts, that are out about this, subject noted to
| share? Too much speculations and armchair opinions re floating
| around.
| Jackson12 wrote:
| If a judge issued a warrant for her arrest there must be
| something there. So idk. Suppose it could still be selective
| enforcement.
| Hello71 wrote:
| this is way too optimistic for the US criminal justice system.
| police and prosecutors regularly lie on warrant applications,
| and judges regularly grant the flimsiest of justifications for
| search and arrest warrants. there is no legal accountability
| whatsoever: the most that defense attorneys can usually do in
| the case of illegal search warrants is to have the illegally
| seized evidence excluded; there is no punishment for the state
| using its immense power to harass and intimidate individuals.
| Jackson12 wrote:
| If a cop willfully lies on a warrant they are generally
| civilly liable. I am by no means saying that no one in the
| criminal justice systems acts unethically. But if a judge
| signs a warrant for someone's arrest there is almost always
| good reason to suspect they committed a crime.
| Hello71 wrote:
| yes, and if a cop murders a civilian they are (supposed to
| be) liable, but innumerable news stories over the past...
| long time have shown that not to be the case far too often.
| Jackson12 wrote:
| I actually can think of no case where a cop clearly shot
| someone in bad faith and wasn't ultimately charged. It's
| much more often the case that the cop has some plausible
| argument that they made a bad decision in good faith.
| Which makes the cases very hard to prosecute. It's pretty
| seldom the case that prosecutors corruptly ignore clear
| cut misconduct.
|
| There are flaws in the justice system. And by no means is
| it totally fair. But in this sort of situation, where a
| judge has seen the evidence and issued a warrant, usually
| there is usually something there. It's very possible this
| is selective prosecution. But, I'll bet you a good sum of
| money at even odds that there's probable cause she
| committed a crime.
| SpicyLemonZest wrote:
| I think the right move is to defer judgment until the charges
| come out, but it's a real possibility. Computer crimes are
| notoriously vulnerable to selective prosecution depending on
| how much the prosecutors don't like you; in most states,
| Florida included, any unauthorized access to any computer
| system can be charged as a felony.
| cascom wrote:
| Unfortunately if anyone were to have their laptop and emails
| searched with an eye towards coming up with probable cause to
| make an arrest, no one is safe.
|
| Just as it's realistically impossible to not break driving laws
| while behind the wheel, giving pretext to a traffic stop, the
| same is true if you give people looking to get you a huge swath
| of your life.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| How many other instances are out there where authorities "can't
| say what someone is charged with" until they're in custody. This
| smells like a CYA deal with DeSantis and his partisan bungling of
| the COVID crisis.
| ineedasername wrote:
| AFAIK, an arrest warrant isn't required for felonies. It's
| required for misdemeanors unless the crime is witnessed by an
| officer. That may point towards this not being a major
| infraction to begin with. Either way, it really is looking more
| & more like harassment
| fdschoeneman wrote:
| Probably millions of instances. I think I'd prefer the state
| not announce what it is charging people with. Once she's
| charged, she should be able to say so. But consider the
| possibility one is falsely accused of rape. In my case, I'd
| want the charge kept private until the courts sorted things
| out. Or until I was falsely imprisoned at least.
| orangecat wrote:
| Please define "partisan bungling" given that Florida has a
| lower death rate(1) and faster vaccine rollout(2) than the US
| average, while keeping schools open in accordance with expert
| recommendations.
|
| (1): https://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-
| visualization/?chart=states...
|
| (2): https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-
| glo...
| ineedasername wrote:
| That's the whole point of this thing: You're pointing to
| Florida's numbers and assuming "no bungling".
|
| This person arrested is alleging that Florida has been
| fudging the numbers to make their situation look much better
| than it is.
| [deleted]
| orangecat wrote:
| _This person arrested is alleging that Florida has been
| fudging the numbers to make their situation look much
| better than it is._
|
| Except she's not. Here's the dashboard that she set up
| after being fired: https://floridacovidaction.com/. And
| here's the official state data: https://experience.arcgis.c
| om/experience/96dd742462124fa0b38.... The numbers are
| virtually identical.
|
| There is exactly as much evidence for the claim that
| Florida is falsifying data as there is for the claim that
| Trump really won the election.
| wbl wrote:
| Florida was falsifying data, got caught, and stopped.
| jkhdigital wrote:
| "Fudging the numbers" is a vague accusation. If I
| arbitrarily add $1 to net profit on my company's annual
| report, then I've "cooked the books" but who cares.
|
| If you read the emails related to this case, it's clear
| that the behavior she describes as "fudging the numbers"
| has no material impact on Florida's Covid-19 reporting.
| ineedasername wrote:
| You're correct, but I'm not saying they definitely fudged
| the numbers, or what method they might have used. I'm
| saying the allegation is that they fudged them, and
| therefore you can't simply point to the official numbers
| to support the claim that they did not fudge them. The
| way to refute that claim is with transparency and
| addressing this woman's specific complaints.
|
| Of course the state isn't really obligated to refute
| every claim made against them, but whether they do it
| don't, I'm only saying that the state is only denying her
| claim, snot actual evidence to support their counter
| claim of no manipulation of the data.
| bitexploder wrote:
| People also need to realize the numbers may look identical
| now but they were manipulated and changed a lot before the
| election and after. It was plain as day manipulation. Now
| that this is exposed DeSantis had to fix the numbers back
| to reality and he's paying Rebekah Jones back for making
| his life difficult.
| hvac wrote:
| > Florida has a lower death rate
|
| To be fair, Florida also has some of the lowest latitudes in
| the US.
| jkhdigital wrote:
| Shhh! Can't let the facts get in the way of a good narrative.
| gnusty_gnurc wrote:
| Funny to see you getting downvotes when you're entirely
| correct.
|
| I wonder if the downvote brigade thinks Cuomo/Murphy did a
| good job.
| cascom wrote:
| It does, but it's also SOP with the police, if someone speaks
| out against them or if they come up empty handed charge them
| with something so as to not look stupid.
| sonotathrowaway wrote:
| Having cops invade her home and hold her children at gunpoint
| didn't scare her into becoming his scapegoat, so it's important
| to escalate the campaign of violence against her.
| lawnchair_larry wrote:
| This didn't happen.
| koolba wrote:
| > Having cops invade her home and hold her children at
| gunpoint didn't scare her into becoming his scapegoat, so
| it's important to escalate the campaign of violence against
| her.
|
| You make it sound like the police broke into her home and
| deliberately pointed weapons at her children. That's
| completely bullshit.
|
| The police had a warrant signed by a judge. They repeatedly
| asked her to open the door, she refused. This went on for
| over 20 minutes. When they eventually did get inside, they're
| entering a premise where the suspect had already demonstrated
| to not be cooperating and it's standard practice to enter
| with your weapon drawn.
|
| You could argue with whether the warrant itself is justified.
| But the police did everything the way they're supposed to and
| the only person who put those children at risk was the mother
| who refused to cooperate with a legally signed warrant.
| bitexploder wrote:
| She didn't know if she was being arrested and was in
| pajamas. I've read of other famous people being given
| plenty of time (in FL) to get ready before a search warrant
| is executed. Considering what we know about Florida and
| what is happening there with COVID and it's reporting, I am
| willing to give her the benefit of doubt. Plus the pretext
| of the warrant is bad. "Cops just doing their job" doesn't
| matter when it is a politically motivated state actor. They
| are the state and a part of the machine being used to
| violate her rights.
| yanderekko wrote:
| >I've read of other famous people being given plenty of
| time (in FL)
|
| I wouldn't call it an injustice that she wasn't granted
| some sort of special treatment that's normally reserved
| for "famous people".
| bitexploder wrote:
| It's more about fair and equal treatment, whatever that
| is. The hypocrisy of modern policing is extreme. Should
| she have been given more or less time? Clearly give
| different treatment to some people. The law is supposed
| to be impartial. And in a case that is already political
| suppression of first amendment rights, it stands out.
| MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
| Fighting against the state is like skipping boulders on
| water. You're gonna need a massive amount of momentum
| behind it to get it to work.
| elmomle wrote:
| _The only person who put those children at risk was the
| mother who refused to cooperate with a legally signed
| warrant._
|
| Wow, let's extend that reasoning just a bit further. If
| someone SWATs me (or pulls strings to get a warrant for my
| arrest), and I don't open the door immediately, I bear the
| responsibility for putting my family at risk?
| isoskeles wrote:
| Immediately? She had over 20 minutes of knocking and a
| few phone calls in that period. People should watch the
| video and think about how long of a time 20 minutes is.
| They'll most likely even find it boring and start
| skipping ahead to more knocking without a response.
| MereInterest wrote:
| > She had over 20 minutes of knocking and a few phone
| calls in that period.
|
| So what? If somebody is knocking on my door, in the
| middle of the night, claiming to be a police officer,
| then making phone calls to verify that is 100%
| reasonable. If I had just been fired for politically
| motivated reasons, then making phone calls to alert the
| media when your home is being raided is 100% reasonable.
|
| > They'll most likely even find it boring and start
| skipping ahead to more knocking without a response.
|
| Police are allowed to be bored. Police are allowed to sit
| outside a house and wait. It does them no harm, and does
| not justify them using additional force when serving the
| warrant.
| SpicyLemonZest wrote:
| It was a sunny morning, not the middle of the night.
| Obviously that's a minor detail, but it's indicative of a
| larger problem - there's been a big game of telephone on
| the actual circumstances of this raid, so your mental
| image of what happened may be different than what the
| video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of7ITokML-A)
| shows.
| MereInterest wrote:
| Good point, and thank you. The relevant pieces that I had
| remembered were that there was a police raid for a non-
| violent crime, and was emphasizing that that is not an
| urgent issue. It's the same way that if you see police
| lights pulling you over on a deserted road, you should
| call to verify that it is a legitimate officer.
| stretchcat wrote:
| Is the timestamp on that video accurate? T13:26 sounds
| like the early afternoon, not even the morning let alone
| late at night.
| isoskeles wrote:
| T13:26:00Z
|
| Z is for "Zulu" time zone
| (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9706688/what-does-
| the-z-...)
|
| So hour 13:00 in Z would be 8:00 am in Florida.
| MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
| Swatting first of all is a crime. Secondly yes, you do
| need to comply, even if you are innocent. Otherwise you
| will get shot.
|
| Nobody is denying it's government overreach, blatant
| disregard to our rights, and breaks the 4th amendment.
| But wool should've been over everyone's eyes like 10
| years ago. The US acts no different than China in how the
| state allows government abuse of power to fuck you
| bureaucratically. Unlike places like Germany where the
| state compensates you for your time and money if they
| can't prove your criminality, also reserving your job as
| well unless convicted; The US just says fuck you but only
| with slightly more rights than China gives their
| citizens.
| foepys wrote:
| Don't Americans have the right for their lawyer or a
| trusted witness to be present during search warrants? If
| they do, why would police ever expect to enter without
| delay?
| alextheparrot wrote:
| No, they don't.
| SpicyLemonZest wrote:
| Are there other countries where it works that way? It's
| hard for me to see how a standard where you don't even
| have to come outside until your lawyer gets there would
| work; what would stop people from using the waiting time
| to destroy all the evidence the police came for?
| dlp211 wrote:
| Because the burden is on the State and we're under no
| obligation to help them. They're job is not supposed to
| be easy.
| PeterisP wrote:
| Coming from a place where search warrants do have be
| executed with the oversight of the owner or their
| representative, police would still expect to enter
| without delay.
|
| In a situation like this there may be a pause until the
| owner or lawyer arrives, but during that pause the people
| would not be permitted to be in the to-be-searched
| location without police supervision; the owner has the
| right to supervise police while they are searching, but
| they don't have any privacy right to do stuff there
| before letting the police in; if the lawyer's presence is
| required then whoever is in that location would let the
| police in and wait for the lawyer together with the
| police officers with neither doing anything until the
| search commences. If noone is present, then the police
| may seal the door while they wait for the owner or their
| representative to arrive; or, alternatively (e.g. if the
| owner is on the run), there is a process to recruit
| neutral witnesses from the community, e.g. having your
| neighbours supervise the search and sign off on what was
| taken out during the search.
| SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
| The cops aren't wild animals. They should have the ability
| to figure out whether or not a web developer/data scientist
| at home with warrants for nonviolent allegations is worth
| drawing a gun in a house with children in it.
|
| We need to hold cops to a higher standard of behavior.
| yanderekko wrote:
| Be that as it may, spinning the story as involving the
| cops "holding her children at gunpoint" is a wild
| distortion and indicates the low quality of discussion
| that this issue has generated.
| stretchcat wrote:
| In Florida, even web developers are allowed to own guns.
| It sounds like the cops kept a level head and didn't
| shoot anybody. This was probably pretty routine for
| Florida cops.
| SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
| This particular warrant case is not being searched for
| any violent behavior and has no history of violence, with
| the warrant happening in a place with no history of
| violence or abuse. There is no reason to be pulling guns
| in a home with children as soon as one enters it.
|
| It shouldn't be routine to draw weapons in a place where
| there is no reason to presume weapons exist.
| stretchcat wrote:
| It being Florida is enough reason to presume guns might
| be present in the house. Note that contrary to the
| expectations of many foreigners, Florida does not have a
| list of all Floridians who own guns. In fact it's
| actually illegal for the state to create such a list.
|
| The children seem to be irrelevant; if children weren't
| in the house I doubt you'd suddenly be fine with what the
| cops did, so the presence of children doesn't contribute
| to your point. Furthermore some of the narratives about
| what happened are greatly exaggerating the situation,
| claiming that cops pointed guns in the faces of children.
| I've seen no evidence of this happening, so I think some
| people are cynically pointing to the children in an
| attempt to emotionally manipulate others. I don't see any
| other reason to mention the kids. They simply aren't
| relevant to the story.
| sonotathrowaway wrote:
| Fun fact: when the police needed to find a judge to
| evaluate the strength of their warrant, the one they
| found was a family court judge brand new to the bench,
| whose signature in her warrant literally being the first
| one he signed in his career. They understand it makes it
| abundantly clear that they are engaged in a witch hunt,
| but communicating threats of state violence against
| whistleblowers is a much more important priority than the
| semblance of justice.
| bjornsing wrote:
| > The cops aren't wild animals.
|
| Sadly, when you give people a stick and tell them they
| are allowed to beat other people with it, at least some
| of them tend to start behaving a bit like wild animals.
| It's sad, but seemingly unavoidable.
| clcuc wrote:
| What does CYA mean in this context? Sorry about the ignorance.
| grzm wrote:
| cover your ass
| [deleted]
| chmaynard wrote:
| This comment thread is an example of social media at its absolute
| worst. Have an opinion? Big deal, everyone has an opinion. My
| advice is to keep it to yourself.
| vlozko wrote:
| I mean, isn't part of the reason we have comments is to discuss
| opinions? The majority (though not all) of the comments I'm
| reading here are saying that there's not enough information to
| form a good, educated one.
| [deleted]
| MilnerRoute wrote:
| CBS includes an additional detail:
|
| _" Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials said Rebekah
| Jones has been under investigation since early November after
| someone illegally accessed the state's emergency alert health
| system...."_
|
| https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/e2-80-98censored-by-the...
| tzm wrote:
| Does this news makes you nervous about moving to Florida?
| stretchcat wrote:
| No, that would be tweakers, alligators, and hurricanes.
| Triv888 wrote:
| coral snakes, rattle snakes, black widows and brown recluse
| spiders are fun too
| Pfhreak wrote:
| This is an obviously politically motivated use of state violence,
| and I hope this case goes in her favor.
| [deleted]
| anonu wrote:
| How can you pass judgement without knowing all the facts?
| Clearly there's still more to this story...
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > How can you pass judgement without knowing all the facts?
|
| From the article, and quite shocking:
|
| > The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed there
| is a warrant for Jones' arrest but said it cannot disclose
| what charges she faces until she is in custody.
| lawnchair_larry wrote:
| If you read the facts available, it appears that this isn't the
| case at all, and it seems that we're being sold a politically
| motivated narrative once again.
| DaniloDias wrote:
| In this media climate? What an aberration! </s>
| fdschoeneman wrote:
| I think it would be helpful if you let us know why you believe
| it is obvious.
| josho wrote:
| In what sane world do you merit a police raid for publishing
| public health data?
|
| Assuming the worst that she accessed a computer she was not
| authorized to access. This data, in the aggregate, is public
| data.
|
| Regardless innocent until proven guilty applies. And to date
| the state hasn't even made their charges public which seems
| ridiculous. 'I have an arrest warrant for you, but I can't
| tell you the charge'.
| curlypaul924 wrote:
| > And to date the state hasn't even made their charges
| public which seems ridiculous. 'I have an arrest warrant
| for you, but I can't tell you the charge'.
|
| As I understand it, the police can tell _her_ the charges,
| but they cannot make the details of the warrants public
| until she has been processed. After that it becomes public
| record with the court.
|
| This is itself an issue, because websites scrape court
| documents and re-publish the information as a service. They
| then charge a service fee to have the information removed,
| even in cases where the charges have been dropped.
| ptero wrote:
| Some personal medical data is very sensitive, and for a
| good reason. I am not claiming that this _is_ true in this
| case, and the state _does_ have to argue and prove why it
| decided that both the search and the arrest were justified;
| but it is also not clear at this point that there is no
| case either.
|
| Publishing _public_ , aggregated, anonymous health data
| should not be a cause for this arrest; and I hope the judge
| that signed the warrant understands this. So there must be
| a different explanation and the state must provide it, and
| quickly.
| qwerty12345678 wrote:
| So in other words, that's what you want to believe, so you will
| believe it without any actual facts. Ignorant people like you
| worsen the division in America.
| LatteLazy wrote:
| What is the law that sending an anonymous messages saying "be a
| hero" breaks? It seems at worst to be spam and a raid for
| spamming a small number of people seems very heavy handed...
| ransom1538 wrote:
| They have her ip address [1]. It is super easy to prosecute with
| her ip address marked on the sent message. I feel bad for her,
| but, why hand the prosecution so much (use a vpn)? This is like
| driving drunk with your headlights off. At this point, she will
| have to plead out.
|
| "An affidavit for the warrant claims that an unauthorized message
| sent from a state emergency management account on Nov. 10 was
| traced to an IP address associated with Jones."
|
| https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/09/raid-f...
| tyingq wrote:
| Some more details on the system she is alleged to have
| accessed: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/12/florida-
| posted-t...
| BrianOnHN wrote:
| This weekend I heard directly from a current DOT employee,
| formerly Dept Of Health, in the FL capitol:
|
| "We were just following the WHO recommendations."
|
| "She's just a web developer and doesn't understand anything about
| the numbers."
| nix23 wrote:
| >>with dual degrees in earth science and journalism in 2012
|
| >>received a dual master's degree in geography and mass
| communication
|
| >>where she completed course work with an emphasis on data
| science and was working on a doctoral dissertation titled Using
| Native American Sitescapes to Extend the North American
| Paleotempestological Record Through Coupled Remote Sensing and
| Climatological Analysis
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Jones
|
| ...Just a Webdeveloper
| xibalba wrote:
| Which of those degrees qualifies her as a data scientist
| capable of contravening WHO recommendations?
|
| Moreover, she is repeatedly referred to in the press as a
| data scientist, but all accounts of her actual work are that
| of a dashboard developer. Having done both myself, I can
| attest that they are _very_ different types of work
| warranting very different training.
| eganist wrote:
| > Which of those degrees qualifies her as a data scientist
| capable of contravening WHO recommendations?
|
| Literally all of her research involved gathering and
| communicating relevant insights from vast and disparate
| data sets, which is the role you just described.
|
| > Having done both myself, I can attest that they are very
| different types of work warranting very different training.
|
| She's educated as a data scientist specific to a given
| field. No different than a rocket scientist running numbers
| at a hedge fund. And I'd argue training v. education are
| vastly different; education gives context to job-specific
| training.
| xibalba wrote:
| > She's educated as a data scientist specific to a given
| field.
|
| > [data scientist] is the role you just described.
|
| No. She's not a data scientist and she herself doesn't
| even make this claim [1] Her job titles were: 1) GIS
| Analyst and 2) Geographic Information Systems Manager.
| Both are systems/dev roles. Clearly, neither is a
| position from which one is qualified to contravene the
| WHO.
|
| Her degrees (per her own LinkedIn page) are in
| _Geography_. Take a look at the degree requirements at
| Syracuse (which offers both a BA and a BS (Jones earned
| the BA option)) [2] and LSU [3]. Next, go look at a few
| DS job postings and tell me the requirements are aligned
| (they are not).
|
| I'm sure Jones is smart. I'm sure Jones is well versed in
| Geography. But she's not a data scientist. Even if she
| were, her skills and experience would not qualify her to
| overrule WHO guidance.
|
| [1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/stormjones/ [2] http://co
| ursecatalog.syr.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=3&po...
| [3] https://lsu.edu/ga/programs/msgeography.php
| nix23 wrote:
| >GIS Analyst
|
| You know what GIS means? Geo INFORMATION
| System....Analyst.
|
| Not many other Fields produces more Data then geo...maybe
| Weather...that's more complicated data (and hard to
| interpret) as most people who claim the title Data
| Scientist will ever see.
|
| >But she's not a data scientist.
|
| Stop with that it's no even a real job, it's a base
| training. Do you really think a Data Scientist has any
| plan what Cern Data s even mean...no.
| prepend wrote:
| > Literally all of her research involved gathering and
| communicating...
|
| Pedantically pointing out that, literally, this is a
| false statement.
|
| It's ok to accurately reflect her work and that advanced
| degrees are hard without assigning incorrect and
| hyperbolic characteristics.
| eganist wrote:
| > Pedantically pointing out that, literally, this is a
| false statement.
|
| My statement is so generic as to be true in the context
| of fields involving scientific research. And that's in
| essence the point: that's what data science is in the
| end.
|
| This isn't an attempt to incense those with Data
| Scientist in their job title or job description, but it's
| why so many STEM folks can easily find homes in Data
| Science without formal education on the topic.
| prepend wrote:
| Not really, I don't think all her research involved
| gathering and communicating relevant insights. There's
| lots of other parts of research.
|
| Also, data science is a sort of generic term and trying
| to generalize to any form of common characteristics is
| not very productive. I'm not aware of any certified
| curricula for data science or accreditation bodies so
| it's kind of a marketing label assigned to everything
| from boot camps to GIS programs.
|
| I think this is positive since lots of people work with
| data. But it's problematic to assume that it means
| anything other than someone wants to signal that they
| work with data.
| eganist wrote:
| > Not really, I don't think all her research involved
| gathering and communicating relevant insights. There's
| lots of other parts of research.
|
| But that is, in fact, the definition of research ("the
| systematic investigation into and study of materials and
| sources in order to establish facts and reach new
| conclusions") and the publication of research findings
| fits the definition of communication.
|
| I guess my point is: if you're going to be pedantic on
| the internet, you should consider whether it's worth your
| time defending your own contribution. I've got no qualms
| defending the idea that Rebekah Jones is a data
| scientist.
| [deleted]
| syshum wrote:
| I love that all the replies are just competing appeals to
| Authority
|
| "My Experts(tm) are more Experts(tm) than your Experts(tm)"
|
| Not a single person in this thread as actually made any
| factual statements or presented any actual evidence of
| either sides correctness or validity.
|
| It simply "She has these degree;s so we should listens" vs
| "The WHO Says...."
|
| It would be amusing if it was not so sad...
| jjcon wrote:
| What does that have to do with anything? Her job was a web
| developer, not a data scientist. None of those qualify her to
| understand statistics better than the plethora of those
| employed by the state that are working diligently.
|
| Plenty of employees have been let go for spreading falsities
| around COVID, most having been on the other side (COVID isn't
| real etc). These behaviors are absolutely unacceptable and
| are dangerous.
| nix23 wrote:
| >>where she completed course work with an emphasis on data
| science and was working on a doctoral dissertation titled
| Using Native American Sitescapes to Extend the North
| American Paleotempestological Record Through Coupled Remote
| Sensing and Climatological Analysis.
|
| >None of those qualify her to understand statistics better
| than the plethora of those employed by the state that are
| working diligently.
|
| Is your society really that stupid that you have to be a
| specialist to understand statistics?
| andybak wrote:
| Statistics is one field in particular where it's easy for
| non-experts to reach completely false conclusions.
| nix23 wrote:
| True with complex stuff, but we talk about covid-
| cases/day/region...that's really something everyone
| should interpret correctly.
| jjcon wrote:
| COVID statistics can be very very difficult to interpret
| correctly, especially at the beginning when data was
| scarce.
|
| For instance, most people agree it is best to exclude
| totally random testing sites from COVID numbers because
| even though the false positive rate is very low, at the
| beginning so was the incidence of COVID which means most
| of the positive tests would be false positive.
|
| Including them or improperly dealing with that data would
| be considered base rate fallacy
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_rate_fallacy
|
| This is just one statistical phenomenon that has to be
| dealt with. It's complicated and sometimes messy but it
| absolutely requires top minds
| SpicyLemonZest wrote:
| Proper interpretation of even the simplest data is easy
| to get wrong. For example, I routinely see smart, well-
| informed people describe the number of Covid deaths
| reported in a day as the number of people who died of
| Covid that day.
| hedora wrote:
| Yeah; some sibling comments here say Covid stats are
| difficult to interpret, but cite phenomena (non random
| samples, false positives, conflation of population and
| sample statistics, etc) that should be covered by any
| reasonable introductory statistics course.
|
| In the US, that's first or second year undergrad
| territory. Overseas, it's often covered in high school.
|
| It's particularly depressing that science reporters
| regularly get these things wrong.
|
| I can't imagine what (lack of) credentials are necessary
| to land such a job, but I often wonder if a basic
| understanding of statistics is a disqualifying
| credential.
| jjcon wrote:
| Mods this is obviously a nix23 alt account which was
| already flagged in multiple places by mods for spamming
| flame bait. Both accounts post in the same places
| regularly.
|
| But I'll bite. The point of providing an example is to
| show how there can be unobvious effects that are specific
| to the medical field (and isn't as simple as cases per
| day). It takes Doctors and statisticians working together
| to interpret this info correctly. And no not al the
| effects are covered in stats101 despite how the freshman
| may protest.
| hedora wrote:
| (also, the flagging of nix23's comment is way out of
| line.)
| YetAnotherNick wrote:
| Lots of highly educated people are on opposite side that
| lockdowns are very unneeded and government is
| overplaying/lying about the severity including the one
| who founded most valuable space company.
| nix23 wrote:
| >including the one who founded most valuable space
| company.
|
| I wonder why would he say that ;)
| jjcon wrote:
| Taking a stats class does not a data scientist make.
| COVID statistics can be very very difficult to interpret,
| especially at the beginning when data was scarce.
|
| Edit to add example : For instance, most people agree it
| is best to exclude totally random testing sites from
| COVID numbers because even though the false positive rate
| is very low, at the beginning so was the incidence of
| COVID which means most of the positive tests would be
| false positive.
|
| Including them or improperly dealing with that data would
| be considered base rate fallacy
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_rate_fallacy
|
| This is just one statistical phenomenon that has to be
| dealt with. It's complicated and sometimes messy but it
| absolutely requires top minds
| nix23 wrote:
| Are you even capable of reading? No wonder you need a
| specialist to "decipher" simple data as covid-cases/day.
|
| EDIT: Why are you changing your comment to that extend.
| That's not honest anymore. Bye
| beervirus wrote:
| Having degrees in irrelevant fields is... irrelevant.
| tedd4u wrote:
| A rabid credential-ist might point out Isaac Newton never
| got a Physics degree.
|
| Credentialism: belief in or reliance on academic or other
| formal qualifications as the best measure of a person's
| intelligence or ability to do a particular job
| beervirus wrote:
| I'm not complaining that she lacks credentials. Someone
| else brought up _irrelevant credentials_ to try to
| bolster her image. I'm complaining about that.
| nix23 wrote:
| You mean that irrelevant point:
|
| >making your Doctor with emphasis on data science, has
| nothing todo with understanding simple data like covid-
| cases right?
| DaniloDias wrote:
| Since appeal to authority is the only hotness nowadays, you
| can anticipate 2bn downvotes.
| nix23 wrote:
| Ahh that's why mathematicians have no clue of Astrophysics
| and vice versa?
|
| And making your Doctor with emphasis on data science, has
| nothing todo with understanding simple data like covid-
| cases right?
|
| BTW Earth science has probably more todo with data than
| anything else.
| prepend wrote:
| It's not that mathematicians have no clue of
| astrophysics, but that they aren't working in that area
| and understanding the field enough to contravene
| decisions made by astrophysicists.
|
| There's a rationale around what is, and is not, included
| in case definitions and included in dashboards. It's
| likely that these decisions are made by epidemiologists
| with not only specific training, but also access to much
| more data than the person who builds the dashboards.
|
| Making a decision to include data in a visualization
| without understanding why is not a good idea because it's
| common that people think they know what numbers mean, but
| only because they have limited visibility.
|
| Having a degree in data science doesn't mean that I'm a
| data scientist. If I'm hired in a web dev role, then I
| hope my input is received well and considered by
| epidemiologists in charge. And I hope they'd be able to
| spend time explaining the rationale behind their
| decisions.
|
| This seems like a similar analogy where the build
| engineer decides to change the git repo because they know
| better than the dev team. Then someone reading the
| article says "well they have a PhD in computer science so
| they should know what they're doing, it's simple."
| fdschoeneman wrote:
| I don't think the degrees you've cited necessarily make one a
| data scientist. I think doing data scientist work makes you a
| data scientist. So it may well be best to consider her a data
| scientist based on her current work or even if it is more of
| a hobby, even if your degree argument isn't the one I'd use.
|
| Nevertheless, Ms. Jones was paid as a web developer by the
| state, not as a data scientist, and if she was publishing
| data she thought was important at the expense of data the
| state's paid data-scientists thought were important, she had
| to be fired.
|
| What if Ms. Jones was taking advantage of her position as a
| web developer and publishing her work as a hobbyist data
| scientist that showed masks are ineffective at the expense of
| the data science work of official state data scientists who
| were saying they are likely to be helpful? I'd still consider
| her a data scientist, I just would want the state to be able
| to fire her.
| nix23 wrote:
| >I think doing data scientist work makes you a data
| scientist
|
| Then we just hope you Surgeon is not like that, and has at
| least a degree in Medicine.
| fdschoeneman wrote:
| I get what you're saying, but is a hospital likely to
| employ a surgeon without a degree in medicine?
| nix23 wrote:
| Well in Pakistan the do that with Pilots without a
| license ;) But beeing Cern your Data Scientist is
| probably a Particle-physicist or a Scientific-Programmer,
| and so on...
| seebetter wrote:
| I have a friend who works in intelligence who said Fauci was
| corrupt and callous in April. In regards to all the
| profiteering in testing.
|
| Love how our society has become so welcoming of "CIA officers"
| on CNN and the media just merged with the political corrupt
| aspect of the IC. Neoliberal rackets.
| gameswithgo wrote:
| I have a friend who says your post is incoherent and crazy
| nosmokewhereiam wrote:
| The web developer part is character assassination at its
| finest. "Just a web developer...what could she know"
| neffy wrote:
| I suspect the key word there is "she".
| kordlessagain wrote:
| JavaScript, for one thing.
| xwdv wrote:
| Not a good start.
| fdschoeneman wrote:
| No it isn't. She was paid as a web developer by the state.
| Simultaneously, the state has actual data scientists it was
| paying to look at this data and provide analysis.
|
| I'm open to the idea she was and is a data scientist,
| nevertheless the state was not paying her for that. It was
| paying her to publish on official state website(s) data and
| analysis provided by the state's official, paid data
| scientists.
| spodek wrote:
| DeSantis couldn't do a better job of turning her into a hero and
| himself into a villain.
|
| What do you think will come next? I see her winning a lawsuit
| against him or some part of the state.
| cascom wrote:
| The cynic in me sees her defending herself from criminal
| charges for the next several years, then being unsuccessful in
| a civil suit due to no smoking gun of malicious prosecution for
| a few years after that, and ultimately no one will remember or
| care, and DeSantis will be out of work or on to another job,
| but he's effectively solved this problem.
| bitcurious wrote:
| There's a lot of talk in this thread of whether Jones is a data
| scientist or not, but that talk is missing something crucial - it
| doesn't take a data scientist to assemble basic reports about
| infection rates and mortality. Little to none of what
| differentiates "data scientist" from "data analyst" or
| "statistician" is involved in these reports. There is no massive
| data, no black-box modeling, really no new statistics at all -
| this stuff is well defined, except for the data itself.
|
| The main choice points are around specific decisions with regards
| to how interpret messy data. Those decisions require domain
| expertise and a deep familiarity with how various public agencies
| in Florida work. Perhaps Jones has that expertise, perhaps she
| doesn't. A title of "data scientists" doesn't change that.
| temp8964 wrote:
| Right now, she is apparently an activist. There is nothing
| wrong with being an activist. However, IMHO, being a "data
| scientist" is inherently incompatible with being an activist.
| No matter how qualified you were, once you became a passionate
| activist, you are no longer a "data scientist" or a "data
| analyst" or a "statistician" on the topic. Again, there is
| nothing wrong with being an activist, but you can't be both. I
| feel this is so obvious that requires no further explanation,
| but I might get massive downvotes for saying this.
| tomnipotent wrote:
| > being a "data scientist" is inherently incompatible with
| being an activist
|
| This is just silly. So if a medical doctor becomes an
| activist on diabetes, they're no longer a medical doctor?
| temp8964 wrote:
| when did I mention "medical doctor"?
| tomnipotent wrote:
| Based on your logic of "if X can no longer be Y". Or are
| only statisticians/analysts somehow effected by this?
| temp8964 wrote:
| wow.
| ZoomerCretin wrote:
| Feeling that something requires no explanation is a
| rationalization for not having any explanation.
| dr_dshiv wrote:
| I'm an activist about childhood poverty and education. This
| makes its way into my data science work because I pursue
| projects and analyses that allow me to understand how poverty
| affects education progress. I often explicitly state my
| biases, because I am sure my interpretation of data is
| colored by my pre-existing beliefs. Yet, I often discover
| analyses that I wouldn't otherwise have considered due to my
| beliefs -- and I have integrity -- I continually update my
| beliefs based on data. So, on one hand I agree that being an
| activist can bias one's interpretation of data, but I also
| think that the biases can be essential for generating useful
| hypotheses to guide analysis.
| ineedasername wrote:
| Excellent point. And important to remember that her claims
| really circle around interpretation.
|
| Measuring her claims really requires knowledges of how the
| state made its interpretation. If those interpretations don't
| correspond to how most other data outside of Florida is
| counted, then there is a problem.
|
| This is why data transparency is so important: Accurately
| understanding regional and nation trends can help inform where
| resources are dedicated and how the virus spreads.
| ykevinator wrote:
| I really hate "data scientist" it elevates glorified excel users
| to the level of physicists
| ashwal wrote:
| What a weird story that keeps getting weirder.
|
| I am a data scientist who spent June in Tallahassee helping
| coordinate state-wide COVID testing with FDEM (Florida Department
| of Emergency Management) and state health officials.
|
| Everyone I worked with was pretty dedicated to getting the roll
| out right (including the governor and his appointees too..)
|
| My data & work was spread far and wide with no issue - but just a
| personal anecdote
| jkhdigital wrote:
| Agreed--as a Florida resident, I have heard a variety of
| highly-charged opinions on this story from many of my fellow
| residents, but very few hard facts to confirm or deny any
| particular narrative.
|
| I think the raid on Ms. Jones home was a grotesque and
| unwarranted use of police force, but I also think her "whistle-
| blowing" story is highly questionable based on the facts
| available.
| fdschoeneman wrote:
| I don't know what the raid on Ms. Jones house was about and
| am going to reserve judgment until I do. There's just so much
| weirdness. She calls herself a data scientist, which she may
| well consider herself to be, but the state appears to have
| hired her as a website developer, and fired her as a website
| developer, because she refused to put out data in her
| capacity as a web developer that the state's paid, official
| data scientists were giving her.
|
| I guess you could consider her a whistleblower. But it's
| unclear the state did anything wrong other than a) insist
| that the numbers from its data scientists be published on a
| state website instead of Ms. Jones's and b) protect its
| emergency communication system by investigating abuses of
| same by what to me, at least, looks like a very likely
| suspect.
| MilnerRoute wrote:
| According to the article in the Tampa Bay Times, Jones'
| official title was:
|
| Geographic information system manager for the Florida
| Department of Health's Division of Disease Control and
| Health Protection
| xibalba wrote:
| If you have few hard facts, how are you evaluating the
| justification for raiding her home?
| jkhdigital wrote:
| The raid on her home is one event which is pretty well
| documented, and I have little tolerance for militarized
| police tactics in general.
| mdoms wrote:
| I'd suggest you have a look at how policing is done outside
| of USA. A raid on someone's home is almost never justified
| - it would take highly exceptional circumstances to make a
| "normal" police force perform like that.
| overscore wrote:
| Raids are common in almost every European country - which
| in general have "normal" police forces - where the police
| believe someone might destroy evidence.
| trasz wrote:
| Only if the charges are heavy enough, and even then it
| usually happens in civilized way, not like SWAT.
| overscore wrote:
| It happens in Ireland all the time for personal amounts
| of drugs. They are generally unarmed raids unless it's a
| gangland case, though.
| syshum wrote:
| >>It happens in Ireland
|
| hmm
|
| >>They are generally unarmed raids
|
| So then does not happen all the time in Ireland
|
| You should really look into how the US conducts "raids"
| even when there is no "gangland" case involved.
|
| They have one procedure for all raids, and it very
| militaristic, they are always armed, and it is ALWAYS
| excessive and violent.
|
| What you are calling a "raid" in Ireland would not be
| what we in the US called a Raid which is very specific
| activity of police
| overscore wrote:
| Different threat models, but a raid is a raid.
|
| Just like an arrest is an arrest, even though in the US
| it will necessarily involve firearms and in Ireland, it
| almost never will.
| kasey_junk wrote:
| It's fairly easy to reconcile the opinions "I'm not sure if
| she has done something criminal" and "the police used
| excessive and intentionally intimidating force when other
| safer options were open to them".
| spoonjim wrote:
| In some countries, a surprise raid of your home means "we
| think you have hostages in your basement" or something at
| that level.
| wl wrote:
| You're going to see surprise raids in any country
| whenever the police believe there's evidence to be found
| that would be destroyed or tampered with if the suspect
| had advance notice.
| chillwaves wrote:
| That doesn't explain them training guns on her when she
| was clearly unarmed and not a threat.
|
| Also didn't they wait something like 20 minutes before
| breaching the residence?
| ptero wrote:
| It _is_ a weird story. I do not think she is being targeted for
| speaking her mind or advocating a particular view of the COVID,
| the charges almost certainly are for accessing the non-public
| data she should not have accessed.
|
| And some data _is_ sensitive. For example, if someone was
| pulling private medical records and harassing or blackmailing
| another person with that information it would, to me, justify
| both the search and the potential arrest. It should not be the
| statistics about COVID -- that data is usually available to the
| public after some aggregation.
|
| That said, the state response and the arrest warrant look very
| strange in this case; so strange that it smells of a personal
| vendetta (e.g., find a potential HIPAA violation and throw a
| book at her). I hope the state will clearly identify what the
| heck she is accused of accessing and why it is so damaging that
| the state resorted to its recent actions. My 2c.
| greenyoda wrote:
| > For example, if someone was pulling private medical records
| and harassing or blackmailing another person
|
| I think it's highly unlikely that a state data analyst would
| have access to any private medical records. The Covid stats
| would have probably already been aggregated by the hospitals
| before they were sent to the state.
|
| > find a potential HIPAA violation and throw a book at her
|
| HIPAA is a federal law, so a violation of it wouldn't be
| prosecuted by the state of Florida.
| plussed_reader wrote:
| Your chosen terminology is a little strange to me(weird); would
| you by chance be an American?
|
| This is a textbook example of the Government(State of Florida)
| targeting an individual for their speech.
|
| But then again, Do-Nothing DeSantis is the successor to Senator
| Red Tide Rick. Par for the course with Florida, sadly.
| joering2 wrote:
| +1. Also for that raid alone where public saw SWAT team
| members putting machine guns in her children faces, she most
| likely will settle and get $10MM+ settlement in less than 10
| years. Of course our taxpayers money. DegenerateSantis will
| be then on his next high paid gig. Watch and see.
| yanderekko wrote:
| >Also for that raid alone where public saw SWAT team
| members putting machine guns in her children faces
|
| Uhh what? The only video I've seen has an officer walking
| around with a handgun drawn and pointing it as he moves
| around her house, and at one point he aims it upstairs
| where her kids are.
|
| How does this get telephone-gamed into "SWAT team members
| putting machine guns in her children faces"?? Is there some
| other video I haven't seen?
| gigatexal wrote:
| From the gofundme:
|
| " Lawyer's fees, private investigators, an armed security guard
| for my home since the police published my home address and
| contact information online, moving expenses so my family can get
| out of the Governor's reach, and any costs associated with this
| fight that I may not be anticipating. My family and I will need
| to move and get set up in a new place."
|
| Holy hell it's like she pulled a Snowden or something. All she
| did was be good at her job and tell the truth. Just another
| reason for me to never live in Florida.
| gigatexal wrote:
| Ok there might be more to this case than I had originally read.
| I didn't know of the other parts as mentioned below :/
| qwerty12345678 wrote:
| Please provide references that she was in fact "telling the
| truth".
| orangecat wrote:
| _All she did was be good at her job and tell the truth._
|
| What "truth" do you think she was exposing? The original
| dispute that caused her to leave her job was a boring technical
| dispute about whether to automatically publish data from PDFs
| or to have it reviewed for accuracy first:
| https://polimath.substack.com/p/a-long-one-about-the-
| florida.... Despite insinuations from various irresponsible
| media figures, there is zero evidence that Florida is
| falsifying data.
| onionisafruit wrote:
| Is this case all they have when they accuse Florida of
| falsifying covid data? I assumed there was more but never
| looked into it.
| treis wrote:
| There was also some controversy of counting those that died
| in Florida but were not residents of Florida. A marginal
| difference, but not anything that big.
| pX3q54Q55945w7E wrote:
| Her "data" that she publishes on her website was always
| within 5% of what my Florida county publishes, and within
| the same margin of what I see on NYT or any other website.
| I say it's close enough, so she didn't expose diddly squat.
| What she did do is access a state computer system without
| authorization. That's a crime, and her guilt or innocence
| will play out in court... like with other crimes.
|
| There's no story here, except about a hysterical,
| attention-seeking woman who poked the wrong bear. Good luck
| to her. If nothing else, I hope she learns a lesson.
| MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
| I always laugh at people who press issues like this. It's
| as if they never prodded authority in high school. In
| high school, typically the worst case scenario is you get
| detention or suspension. In the real world, you get sued
| or go to jail.
|
| It makes me glad I did bureaucratic rebellion then. I
| learned quickly that the powers that be will never
| concede to you, people quickly disperse or disown you the
| moment you need help fighting something, and ideals are
| worthless things fighting for short of endless mass mobs
| demanding it.
| SpicyLemonZest wrote:
| She had some procedural complaints as well, but she's since
| started publishing her own "defudged" data tracker at
| floridacovidaction.com, and as far as I've heard it's never
| reported any huge difference from the state's numbers.
| ocschwar wrote:
| The previous allegation against her was something that would make
| her the hero even if she was guilty. It was a charge of "making
| good trouble", albeit one that would put her away for a long time
| under the CFAA.
| temptemptemp111 wrote:
| She probably made unrelated mistakes they can get her on... This
| is just to set an example to not go against the narrative.
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