The Grind:
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) raided the home of fired Department of Health data analyst Rebekah Jones on Monday evening after she allegedly hacked into the health department’s emergency alert system and sent unauthorized messages about COVID-19.
The messages in question, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, read: “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.”
The Details:
In a short video clip Jones posted Monday evening, three men from the law enforcement agency tell Jones to go outside when she opens up her front door, alerting her that they have a “search warrant.” They ask her who else is inside and direct that her two children and husband need to go outside, as well.
Jones was fired back in May from her job as a geographic information system manager for health department’s Division of Disease Control and Health Protection over alleged insubordination. While the media breathlessly praised Jones as a brave “data scientist” speaking truth to power, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told the press that Jones is not a scientist, but a woman with a degree in journalism, communication, and geography who was putting data on the state’s CVOID-19 portal “which the scientists didn’t believe was valid.” Read more…