Florida law enforcement officials raid house of information scientist who constructed Covid-19 dashboard; clutch telephones, computer systems
Rebekah Jones, the information scientist who advanced Florida’s coronavirus dashboard, has tweeted a video of state police raiding her space and brandishing a gun.
In Would possibly this 12 months, Jones, the previous Division of Well being information scientist, was once fired for refusing to govern information “to drum up give a boost to for the plan to reopen” the state. Since then, Jones has introduced her personal Covid-19 dashboard for Florida and used crowdsourcing to fund it.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, Jones mentioned ‘There shall be no replace these days.’
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There shall be no replace these days.At 8:30 am this morning, state police got here into my space and took all my {hardware} and tech.
They had been serving a warrant on my laptop after DOH filed a criticism.
They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed weapons at my children.. pic.twitter.com/DE2QfOmtPU
— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) December 7, 2020
A video accompanying the publish displays brokers of Florida Division of Legislation Enforcement on the entrance door of Jones’ house with weapons drawn, asking who else was once in the home. She mentioned her husband and two youngsters had been within as they escorted her out of the home.
The video displays an agent getting into the home along with his gun drawn, calling for her husband to come back down the steps. When an agent instructed her to relax, Jones mentioned, “He simply pointed a gun at my youngsters!”
Rebekah additional accused Florida governor Ron DeSantis of sending the police.
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They took my telephone and the pc I exploit each day to publish the case numbers in Florida, and faculty circumstances for all the nation.
They took proof of corruption on the state stage.
They claimed it was once a couple of safety breach.
This was once DeSantis.
He despatched the gestapo.
— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) December 7, 2020
In some other tweet, Jones mentioned she’s going to proceed to publish the coronavirus numbers on her site and ‘get again to paintings’.
If Desantis concept pointing a gun in my face was once an effective way to get me to close up, he is about to be informed simply how unsuitable he was once.
I’m going to have a brand new laptop the next day.
After which I’ll get again to paintings.
If you wish to lend a hand, my site remains to be at https://t.co/JbQtrVbRuv
— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) December 7, 2020
As consistent with a record in native media Tallahassee Democrat, Florida Division of Legislation Enforcement spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger despatched a remark confirming the seizure of laptop apparatus at Jones’s Tallahassee house and mentioned brokers are investigating.
“FDLE started an investigation November 10, 2020, after receiving a criticism from the Division of Well being relating to unauthorized get right of entry to to a Division of Well being messaging device which is a part of an emergency alert device, for use for emergencies most effective,” Plessinger mentioned.
Plessinger mentioned when brokers arrived, they knocked and waited 20 mins for Jones to reply to the door.
“Ms. Jones refused to come back to the door for 20 mins and hung-up on brokers. After a number of makes an attempt and verbal notifications that legislation enforcement officials had been there to serve a prison seek warrant, Ms. Jones in the end got here to the door and allowed brokers to go into,” Plessinger mentioned. “Ms. Jones’ circle of relatives was once upstairs when brokers made access into the house.”
The investigation is energetic, she added.
