Woman jailed after using shooting suspect's catchphrase as insurance company denied claim.
Woman jailed after using shooting suspect's catchphrase as insurance company denied claim
So, no free speech in the US after all?
Depends on how much money you have.
Paid speech
Elon Musk could tweet about this (he won't, though, because he's a shit-eating ass nozzle) and nothing would happen.
Nothing. Not a thing. They can do anything they want, but the poors get shit on and jailed.
🌎👩🏼🚀🔫👩🏼🚀
Never has been.
And also shouldn't be
You can free speech on X and truthsocial about shooting Mexicans. But you can’t free speech on other platforms about shooting CEOs.
Because “free speech” can only align with the platform you are on. If it doesn’t align, then it is some other form of speech which is not allowed. Very simple.
The lower classes must be kept in check otherwise they might realize how easy it would be for this to happen again. So let’s give a person a 100k bond, charge them with an act of terrorism for saying words fhat are literally used to describe the techniques of insurance companies
Interesting to note, they mentioned the Florida woman's name, but not the judge's.
Interesting, interesting, interesting.
I take it that was the the information they could get.
Well Lakeland is Polk county, known by people who grew up in FL as the meth capital of Florida. All arrest records are public record in Florida, so finding a judge wouldn't be hard I imagine. First appearance court rooms should be the link below. Not sure which judge it would have been on Wednesday.
I said Wednesday because if she was arrested Tuesday Florida does first appearances the next morning (unless it's a weekend) https://www.jud10.flcourts.org/virtual-courtroom-links/polk-first-appearance
"The working class is being oppressed to the point of breaking, so we better just keep them all locked up."
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
"Status of our country." Lol. A fucking gilded age shithole where the rich a finally being treated like the outta be?
Fucking florida. It's like they all live there to prove a just god does not exist as they haven't been washed away yet despite it being fucking florida.
No, but in 10 to 20 years nature will be doing the Lord's work.
The beatings will continue until moral improves.
She threatened the ruling class. And in a feudal society are not allowed to do that.
Honestly the judge can be added to the fucking list.
Evil. They’re evil.
Let's not make him a liar
The "status of our country" is genocidal empire of massive inequality destroying the planet.
I imagine the "Delay, Deny, Depose" didn't get her in trouble nearly as much as the "You people are next" part. Yeah, that's a bit hostile there.
Please, marginalized people get more explicitly threatening crap said to them all the time and people rarely get arrested or charged for that. She's being charged because the system wants to make an example out of her. The judge basically said so himself at the bail hearing,
"I do find that the bond of $100,000 is appropriate considering the status of our country at this point," the judge said.
Ouch. "This place is a shit show," the judge said. (Not really, just fixed it for him).
They need to appeal this. Clear judicial error. If he wouldn’t have done this 3 weeks ago legally he can’t do it now.
100k for a threat made in reaction to what was likely fear for her life, or the life of her loved one.
It's pretty amazingly cruel.
Not saying you are wrong about the marginalized, but in this case she made, what could be considered threatening, a call to a health care provider that was not only actionable, but entirely recorded.
"The system" won't make an example out of her, "Exhibit A" will. That's the difference.
I've met victims of domestic violence who were threatened much worse than "you guys are next" so I'm not buying this as anything other than the system trying to use her as an example.
Oops, I completely misinterpreted your comment. Not sure what etiquette says, but I feel silly and am removing mine.
I agree that this person saying "you guys are next" is not a threat to the degree that it should be chargeable, and that she's being made an example of.
Were their threats recorded? The fact that people have said worse doesn't change the fact that it was a threat.
There's no direct threat there more than saying the boogeyman will get you. People threaten marginalized communities like this on TV, radio and social media every day with no impunity because it's just vague enough not to count because stochastic terrorism is totally cool for SOME people.
"a bit hostile" -> straight to jail
Do not threaten commerce, they don't tolerate that. The money must flow at all costs.
Talk to any call center worker at any shitty company in the US and they'll tell you they've heard the same thing or worse before. This isn't new for shitty companies at all, they're just trying to make it seem like it's new in response to this situation and not something that they've been ignoring for decades.
Ohh good point. Have a call center friend; heard stories...
Clearly she was saying that they were next to receive a gift basket for all their hard work in denying claims for profit
I can agree with your statement, but is it an act of terrorism? I don't think her threat should be categorized as terrorism.
I don't think it's terrorism either as I understand. Terrorism targets citizens for leverage.
Remember this the next time the cops tell someone they can’t do anything about a stalker or angry ex threatening to kill them until they actually act. They can do something. They choose not to.
Judges too! He set her bail at 100K. Rapists get less than that.
The whole fucking system is as crooked as a $3 bill
I've had a loved one threatened by a drunk/high driver before. They (the asshole) nearly ran them off the road after swerving into the oncoming traffic lane, and my relative literally was doing nothing but drive the speed limit.
We had the full license plate number, and we met with the police after calling it in. The police then said they couldn't do a thing. They didn't even put out a call to get this guy off the road. They seemed legitimately bothered that we even reported the crime.
She said "Delay, Deny, Depose. You people are next," according to the article.
Funny part is insurance companies hear worse than this all day long however this is their trigger.
L O L
previously it was at some poor customer support agent in a 3rd world country, now the danger is to the mega donors oligarchy club members.
won’t be tolerated.
I hope she's right
You people are next
Yea this part is not gonna look good in court.
Just those 3 words without adding more would sound less bad, might not have gotten out of the arrest, but adding "You people are next" just ensured the arrest and charges.
Yet, if some citizen tells another citizen directly, "I'm going to kill you until you are dead," and that second citizen then goes to the police to report it, the police will respond, "we have no proof other than your hearsay, person one has to actually commit some act of violence before we can even issue a restraining order (worthless) let alone do any 'police work.'"
This is how it acts in citizen-to-citizen interaction in the real world. A business gets special treatment versus a citizen, yet again.
(Regardless of how crass or inappropriate her angry comment was. Remember: America lets Nazis exist because "free speech" - it's a huge hypocrisy.)
She didn't say she was going to be involved in whatever the "next" thing ment. Might have been a heart-felt warning against vigilantes.Also, the "next" thing might well have been "...to get much needed care denied".
Legally this is so flimsy it's a waste of time. Looking at wording from politicians there's way more direct calls to violence which will never be prosecuted. In practice it shows the pull of big corporations with cops, and inconveniences the life of an already inconvenienced person.
I was literally told by some dude that “if I see you again, I’ll fucking kill you” while I was walking my dog at night around my town’s library. I told the police and they didn’t do jack shit. Whereas this lady gets a hit by a $100,000 bond?
It's weird, because I took it to mean that the people she's talking to are going to be denied insurance in some way next.
I mean we can assume, and it's fairly likely, that it was a reference to the assassination, but American court is fucked if this is enough.
Proof that the justice system only serves the wealthy.
Clown world we living in
One dead cop, no more donut shop. More dead cops, the hurting stops
From the article’s source article:
“She’s been in this world long enough that she certainly should know better that you can’t make threats like that in the current environment that we live in and think that we’re not going to follow up and put you in jail,” said Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor.
I thought we had a legal definition of a real threat, and this isn’t it.
This man on the other hand was released after his EIGHTH stalking arrest in three years.
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/plano-man-8th-arrest-stalking-harassing-smu-students/
But someone who is stalking their ex and threatens to kill them the cops won't do anything about.
Well is the ex a CEO?
Yeah, well, what's she going to do? Hire an expensive lawyer? If she's that upset by being denied, she's likely too poor to play the U.S. justice game.
After being charged with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, a judge set Boston's bond at $100,000.
"I do find that the bond of $100,000 is appropriate considering the status of our country at this point," the judge said.
Attorneys have said the insurance industry uses a "delay, deny, defend" tactic to withhold health care services.
Jailed for using words to describe what insurance companies do?
Judge is trying to fill their year-end quota.
"Delay, Deny, Depose. You people are next," she allegedly said near the end of the call.
Let's be real, the "You people are next" is probably the reason for jail.
“You people are next...”
"... to hear from my lawyer!"
"... to get bad press once I go to the newspaper."
"... <insert anything that doesn't mean physical violence.>"
I hope we don't jail people based on what we think they meant.
Let's say an elected official or candidate (bless em if any would actually do this) says this phrase in a speech. Would they be arrested? Or would they be given an interview for them to explain themselves, where they deftly state "obviously I'm not talking about doing it myself - but generally speaking these companies are heading in a concerning direction". There would be debates over it, some people would be upset, but the story would fade and the politician would likely move on as well.
Say that phrase with Trump's voice in your head and it sounds like much of his political speech.
Regular folks must be a lot more careful with their speech in the US, far less of it is free.
Sure that's the reason but is it a justification?
Do you know how many people are saying shit like this everyday all day?
This is the police protecting corporate America over the working class.
I guarantee they are taking orders from the oligarchs. Squash any talks of more execution
No, her lack of money is the reason for jail.
Context means everything. It's obviously a threat.
Looks like a lot of us are going to jail over the next 4 years.
Well yeah, those camps won't fill themselves!
They can't jail all of us. Deny, defend, depose
That won't stop them from trying. After all, the prisons are profit centers for them.
Nothing like jail time to radicalized someone more. Judge is playing 5d cheese by providing motivation.
Getting her in touch with the people that can get the job done.
Freedom of speech, as long as it's completely meaningless.
Let's free her
She's been released with no charges. Fucker's didn't have a case.
Her saying, "you people are next," is what makes it a threat, thus not protected under free speech.
That's not a threat. Thays a awning. She never said she would do anything specific. This is a slam dunk defense case.
She should of said, " The second amendment people will take care of you". Now that is presidential.
What a fucking farce that our POTUS makes threats all the time but a citizen can't even speak their mind.
I'm sure the "Free Speech" people are up in arms about this, right?
please, the free speech brigade only protects important speech, like calling for minority executions
You need the credible threat cheat code. We should vote to make it legal to kill health insurance CEOs.
Lol, catch phrase or actual corporate practice? Because quoting a company memo to said company is apparently a threat.
The depose part was the assassin's, and she followed it with, "You people are next." context is important, and context makes this a threat.
"You people are next" does seem pretty threat-ish, however:
After being charged with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, a judge set Boston's bond at $100,000.
That is completely out of touch with what happened. "You people are next" not an act of terrorism.
It's hard for me to agree this is a threat after media has spent years explaining why all of Trump's language is actually never threatening or inciting violence, even after his language incited violence.
It is towards the ruling class. They can't let this grow into something that threatens them.
It's easily argued that the statement was a warning, not a threat.
Why? She was delayed, denied, and deposed. If it's so bad then jail the insurer.
Depose is the assassin's addition, not part of the healthcare tactics. You can't depose someone who's already at the bottom
Clearly what we all mean when we say depose is get them in front of a lawyer asking questions on the record.
I'll make the textual argument that depose could mean "To lay down; to divest one's self of; to lay aside." Which i believe applies.
Delay, deny, and depose the FBI. The FBI isn't acting like this during a Trump presidency, this is the most lenient it gets at, during a democratic presidency. With a Trump presidency, Americans should familiarize themselves with current Russian society to know what they should expect for its future. Fuck your messed up police state, Americans, and fuck a constitution that only seems to be propaganda bullshit that is too much for the FBI to live by.
Trump LITERARILY incited a violent mob that killed a cop and the FBI was like "ugh, we're so weak our hands are tied 😭"
But some lady venting over our shitty healthcare and there they go like Rambo.
This is why people don't trust cops, and this is why people hate the rich.
I agree with the end of what you wrote, but I thought the mob didn't actually kill the police officer? I try to absorb news from diverse sources so I'm used to getting different versions of a story. I wonder which version is more spun?
Edit after writing that comment, I looked at the wiki article about it. I guess the police officer was pepper sprayed by two rioters, one of whom got 7 years prison for that. The officer died the next day of two strokes. There was some misreporting about the cause of his death, but it was ruled natural causes. That determination also ended up a little controversial.
This will definitely ease tensions among the masses and rouse support for the Healthcare execs lmao
Won't someone think of the CEOs.
I think of them all the time actually...
Her expression says I can't believe this shit. I can't, either.
Her expression says "I'm shocked that my white skin and light eyes aren't absolving me of responsibility as usual".
I’ve heard worse death threats in Fortnite.
I'm not convinced it's a threat. She didn't say she was DOING anything, just that nobody is putting up with their shit anymore..
What about free speach?
Freeze Peach is only when they're calling for war and lynching people they don't like. When it comes to ACTUAL controversy you go to jail right away!
nothing controversial here, almost all of us want to do something like this but are either too chicken or have dependents that we do not want to leave behind alone by going to jail.
Don't forget the capitalist ideology based on profiting from the denial of basic human needs. Not just free but completely indoctrinated!
I knew those frozen peach yogurts were up to something
They think they're making an example. That this will have a chilling effect.
They're wrong. All this is going to do is radicalize even more people. As it should.
May the first amendment suit she files after this gain her the money she needs for her healthcare. And may whatever insurance company this is be dissolved.
Per the GoFundMe, she was released and charges dropped:
Hi everyone, it looks like the county released Briana with no charges, so I stopped the campaign. See here: https://www.polksheriff.org/inmate-profile/2435323 I am looking how to run a gazillion of reimbursements on this platform.
Her arrest was fine specifically to generate this headline.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they realized they were never going to convict her of anything. Protected speech that also references a wildly popular killing is just not something you're going to be able to convict over.
Remember folks, the company reps you interact with are generally not the ones making the rules they are paid to abide by. They're working for a living, just like us.
With that, calling this an "act of terrorism" is an incredulous overreaction that just goes to show how badly they're shitting their pants right now.
I've quit jobs because of ethical concerns before, these people don't make a living just like me.
They’re working for a living, just like us.
They're part of the machine that sucks the blood of the people. I wouldn't advocate violence, but they're not worthy of our respect.
I am fairly certain insurance claim staff are used to hearing worse.
We learned about individual responsibilities before, the slaying of poors is not just making a living, it's not the corporate entity that is the evil it is the henchmen that have individual rights to say stop just like any soldier that is told to rape and plunder innocents
working for whom ?
Regardless whether you support her general conduct, I think we can all rally around one tenet here:
Don't harass a shitty company's T1 support out of priciples against the company in general.They're in no better position to effect change in the system than you are. They exist only to be slightly more competent phone robots, turning your whiney noise into itemized actions, and filter those actions down to a restricted subset of system commands the company permits them to do.
If anything, they're on our level of the totem pole. Any outrage directed at them for actions of their broader company are a gross misdirection and wholly counterproductive.
I don't know who this lady was speaking to on the phone. But if it was some minimum wage phone bank slave who is just the ablative frontline of the customer support hotline, I don't support her threat in that context.
Maybe if her threat was directed towards the minimum wage worker, they'll let her go then.
Inb4 nuremburg
This is a dumb take. Their frontline workers should take the brunt of what the public feels. That is the point as you can't get to anyone higher up. Maybe people won't want to work there anymore and they will have to pay much higher wages to attract people.
Sounds like a win to me. Company goes under because no one wants to work for them knowing the public hates them or they will get paid enough they don't care.
In your world we can't show hate because someone isn't paid enough and it isn't their decision. It's not their fault. But then you can't access the person who is at fault so there is nothing you can do. This is fundamentally broken concept and is akin to resignation.
Charging at them directly where they want you to charge, their designated fall guys, sounds like a superbly inefficient strategy. You are pinching a huge amount of bystanders caught in the middle to for a proportionally negligible effect.
Yes, if someone who is desperately asking for a proverbial (maybe literal?) bullet in their head puts a hostage between you and them, can you still plow right through the hostage and get them that way? Exhaust everyone they can possibly field to eventually break through to them? Sure, in principle. That can balloon to an absurdly high casualty count, though. Is it really all worth it?
It's a lot more efficient to, wherever possible, sidestep around the hostage, get behind them and strike directly at the problem. That's exactly what Luigi Mangione did, and its effectiveness is exactly what's being applauded.
If your rebuttal is that what Luigi did is far more of a risky path to take, you don't wish to take a risk like that, and you'd rather faff about kicking low level grunts instead because that's an easier, lower-consequence option for you that theoretically makes progress, okay, I guess. I personally think you're just wasting your time and energy pissing off only the wrong people. Only big stunts are gonna move the needle, in my opinion.
Their frontline workers should take the brunt of what the public feels.
Yes. That is the job. But the fact that they already take the brunt doesn't justify anyone screaming/abusing/threatening/ect the CSR.
Sounds like a win to me. Company goes under because no one wants to work for them knowing the public hates them or they will get paid enough they don't care.
A win for whom? What exactly do you get out of it? Satisfaction? Is it just some kind of flaccid moral victory or something?
If this were actually the case, quite a lot of businesses would've gone under a long time ago. Most of them still pay shit wages.
In the meantime, real people are negatively affected by the assholery of customers every single day.
This is not a win for the workers. It's hard enough being forced to spend most of your life working to make just enough money to scrape by, let alone being screamed at, insulted, condescended to, ect.
But then you can't access the person who is at fault so there is nothing you can do.
except to berate the CSR, apparently. There's definitely nooo way to voice one's concerns while speaking like a respectful, emotionally competant human being.
Wait, what does flipping out on them accomplish again?
Low wage phone workers HAVE been taking the brunt of this shit. It just never mattered to CEOs until now because they never thought theyd be the ones to get the bullet. They probably expected a mass shooting at one if their call centers or something. You know, nothing that hurts them directly.
The worst part is call centers often have policies that say they aren't allowed to hang up. So they have to sit there and take the abuse. I wonder what the depression and suicide rates are for call center workers....
The point is people are fucking desperate, told to be happy they have a job, and end up in the employment version of an abusive relationship. And like folks in abusive relationships, we should cheer for them to leave while also recognizing it can be quite difficult to do just that.
Found a Karen on Lemmy wow
This occurred in Deregulated Fucking Florida and I thought the damn MAGATs are for freedom of speech.
Only for billionaires or corporations
They're determined aren't they? To just completely make Luigi a martyr.
I'm surprised they aren't just burying the news completely.
Doing this shit is just throwing gasoline on the fire
Jesus fucking Christ we are so damn cooked. It's actually joever.
signed, a floridian
Ah yes, more of that freedom we crow so much about as our brand.
The company she spoke to is free to take her premium payments for years, then to kill her through claim denial, and she's free say "thank you for taking my premiums all those years and now denying my claim" and then die quietly.
Herp derp Freedom🇺🇸
According to the affidavit, 42-year-old Briana Boston used the phrase during a call with BlueCross BlueShield about a denied claim.
"Delay, Deny, Depose. You people are next," she allegedly said near the end of the call.
The "You people are next" line certainly adds some context to this story.
A bit, but it still doesn't explain how this warrants terrorism charges and $100,000 bail. A visit from the police and probation or anger management courses? OK I still don't really agree but it makes some sense. But not prison time. She's getting punished harder than many rapists and child molesters.
MAGA paraded with more direct threats of violence on signs, after Jan 6th, with no accountability.
Why wouldn't an insinuation of terrorism warrant a terrorism charge and a lot of bail money? That doesn't make sense.
My my aren't we the butthurt bunch these days? heh
Seriously this is fairly extreme given the public's delight in the shooting.
The last part was probably it but its clear they are scared. That fills my heart with joy.
I hope the CEOs lie awake at night with fear in their cold dead hearts.
No they don't, and you know it. There will be less in person meetings tho. Or at least more often at retreat locations, not at the usual headquarters.
The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States does not protect speech that threatens or incites violence.
Is it really a threat though? Idk. She's repeating some words and saying "you're next", but not what they're next for.
I don't know about insurance but I worked once alongside a Google call center DB team, for adwords and they received lots of messages like these over inbound AND outbound calls, emails or chats.
Google is EXTREMELY strict with threats issued to their own employees, even third party contractors, to the point they would ABSOLUTELY and without chance of appeals blacklist people like this person.
To dimension the sheer scale of being blacklisted by Google, that means that every IP address they ever registered you using, be it by VPN or whatever, gets thrown in a black hole you can never escape
Google services or accounts you linked using those IPs? Fucked forever.
If you were part of the unlucky people who get a static IP set, get ready to start a lengthy process just to remove your account from being associated to that one.
Marketing manager accounts? Screwed for life. Might as well say goodbye to your job and consider never advertising through adwords again.
And I'm not even touching what happens with devices, payment processors, YouTube, educative domains and, worst of all, corporate compute instances.
If Google didn't destroy you in those cases, your company and your bank certainly will.
So yeah, if Google takes that shit seriously, you bet a healthcare provider will do the same
That seems impossible to manage... you would cripple google by running a botnet tainting millions of IPs that will get cycled to legitmate users.
Stephen Bonczyk of Lakeland Florida is a tyrant and fascist who doesn't respect our right to free speech in the US. In my opinion.
See, telling your supposed enemy your intentions was the first mistake. If you didn't intend to go through with it, then it was just an empty threat. Either way it's dumb.
Those LLs in the llc titles are coming into focus
Threatening the hospital that was denying my father care, leaving him to die, was the only way I got into the literal board room to reason with them. I got them to resume treatment after they dicked around for a month and he refused to leave because he was going to die if he left.
He still died because he was so sick at that point that they couldn’t do the procedure he needed when he first arrived.
So I threatened them in 2010, and I’d fucking do it again now for my child. We are supposed to stand up for our loved ones.
It's disgusting. There needs to be legal recognition of all that is at stake for patients and their families. The denial of necessary care is structural violence and should be treated as such by everyone.
Agreed. It’s straight up murder
Maybe if you get another vote?
I had to play this card once, too. I was in the cardiac unit for 28 days, and they were going to send me home because they couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and the insurance decided I wasn’t worth the expense anymore.
I refused to leave until they gave me a diagnosis, because i would have just died otherwise.
Pretty sure the healthcare system still wants that.
What was wrong?
What did you threaten them with? Thats the most important part.
Financial extermination. But threat of violence would’ve been my next step in trial and error. It’s my family.. I’d do anything for them. People even told me I should’ve. It was a tough situation and I was young. A little younger than Luigi.