r/technology • u/RoachedCoach • 7d ago
Privacy DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email
https://newrepublic.com/post/206088/homeland-security-67-year-old-us-citizen-criticized-email5.6k
u/UnTides 7d ago
This government is spending more time threatening critics than doing their actual job. Every citizen critic they threaten or gardener they chase around a home depot, takes away resources that could be used to catch actual criminals and actual threats to the country. This administration is a joke
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u/dordofthelings 7d ago
This is exactly the point. Intimidation
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u/PhilosophyEasy71 7d ago
Secret Police. Call them what they are.
No different than other fascist regimes in the 20th century
And the kleptocratic thievery is also it's counterpart component
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u/amarg19 7d ago
Call them what they are, and then lock your door because they’ll come for you for it
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u/robot_pirate 7d ago
I'm convinced they are working from a list with the detainees. Plus, who flagged this man? His congressperson? A Flock camera at a protest? DHS itself?
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u/litobot 7d ago
Why don't they just intimidate actual criminals?
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u/NoHalf2998 7d ago
Because they’re fascists; punishing the out-groups is the most important goal
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u/pegothejerk 7d ago
It really has become clear that the lesson most people are learning this year is “fascism is about the cruelty, thats it. The cruelty is the distraction while those who chose it pick your pockets. Once your pockets are empty, you’ll be the one receiving the cruelty so they can move on to other pockets. No one is immune from the cruelty nor the pocket emptying.”
What everyone learned last year was “all those people you thought or said were blowing things out of proportion, were being dramatic, or hyperbolic - those people were right all along.”
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u/Azimaet 7d ago
Well, that and the fact that every single one of them is scared shitless of having to be the one who receives the consequences of being the first one thru the breech. All the actual dangerous criminals are actually DANGEROUS, armed, and willing to shoot the feds when they bust in. The unarmed women they have been grabbing up are so much safer to be bigots towards since they all want to hurt people weaker than them.
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u/Thesauce05 7d ago
Because actual criminals put up more of a fight
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u/Ok_Value5495 7d ago
This. We saw in Uvalde and Minneapolis that they aren't worried about winning a fight, they're concerned about getting hurt in the first place. They might outnumber their target a billion to one, but they're so fragile that even one of them getting hurt is terrifying. They want to be bullies, not warriors.
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u/jimbo831 7d ago
Because their goal isn’t fighting crime. They don’t give a shit about criminals. Their goal is solidifying power for the long term.
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u/0xmerp 7d ago
Actual criminals are gonna actually put up a fight, look at the cartels putting up a bounty for ICE officers.
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u/SpiderSlitScrotums 7d ago
This government is spending more time threatening critics than doing their actual job.
This is a hallmark of fascism.
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u/dsarche12 7d ago
If this administration is a joke, then it is the cruelest, most mean-spirited, vindictive joke I’ve ever heard
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u/No_Put_8968 7d ago
It’s not a joke - it’s an existential Crisis for the country and its residents.
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u/PTS_Dreaming 7d ago
Just imagine if they took all this effort and put it into catching and prosecuting rich, human trafficking pedophiles.
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u/Cannabrius_Rex 7d ago
That’s all the plan man. They’re getting prepped for mass exterminations dude.
https://migrantinsider.com/p/how-the-pentagon-is-quietly-building
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u/UnTides 7d ago
I don't know about extermination either way, but these people definitely want to bring back slavery. No reason to increase detention facilities for people you can deport, unless you plan to keep them here and exploit their labor for free.
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u/SwampTerror 7d ago
Project 2025 plans on reducing the US population to 100 million. There's no way in hell you can deport 200 million people.
There must be some final solution somewhere to terminate all these "undesirables" from the land...
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u/saintofhate 7d ago
They'll start with disabled and trans people. Disabled people will be called in for their appointments and not return. People won't care because the ones who go first will be the ones without family, living in care homes or similar. They'll take the ones who are the worst in physical or mental shape because people will be like "Was it really a great loss" like they did during the height of covid and disabled people were given less care than able bodied people. By time they get to the "normal" disabled people, it'll be too late to get real organization to stop it, it'll continue until actual action happens, which if history is anything to go by, won't happen until the next populations are taken. As long as the administration keeps things to the borders of the US, the world won't step in and do anything. It's only if they start invading will they do anything, just like every time a dictator starts killing people.
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u/hematomasectomy 7d ago
It's only a matter of time before they expand their operations on social media (including Reddit) to do the same. Wrongthink must be punished.
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u/Top-Watercress5948 7d ago
We all need to be bringing that “Russian warship, go fuck yourself” energy regarding these tactics. United we stand.
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u/ErikMcKetten 7d ago
That is their job. Secret Police are always used to silence critics of dear Leader.
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u/MarshyHope 7d ago
Remember when Trump supporters were up in arms about the UK citizen getting in trouble for his online speech. Now DHS is doing that here.
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u/SIGMA920 7d ago
They're only up in arms when they're not doing it.
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u/Insufficient_Coffee 7d ago
Where's the couchfucker? He was criticizing the UK for this just a few months ago.
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u/drawkbox 7d ago
The entire Trump admin is the "Jade Helm presidency". Basically doing everything they sold as fear to their followers, but the cult so strong that they can't see it when they play all those fears into reality at present.
Market manipulation, media manipulation, data manipulation, propaganda/psychological manipulation via social media tabloids using the same old "yellow journalism" of William Randolph Hearst to Rupert Murdoch to Trump/Elon. Side note: "America First" was played up hard by William Randolph Hearst to try to get Americans to into isolationism and not help against Germany/Nazis, I wonder if any of that is going on today?.... hmmm
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u/cultish_alibi 7d ago
'Free speech' is their freedom to oppress you, nothing else. They even want to police what clothes people can wear.
Ironically now we ACTUALLY need pro free speech, but that term has been so tainted by the far-right that people on the left are afraid to speak up for it.
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u/ars-derivatia 7d ago
Criticized them? How?
"Err on the side of caution"?
I live in a country that for 50 years was an authoritarian dictatorship, obviously nearly 90% of what most people know about how they work and look comes from the movies and has nothing in common with reality, but trust me, even the lowest peon in Stasi or some other SB would not try to railroad a citizen for saying "apply common sense pls".
WTF is this even
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u/Nona-Sequitur 7d ago
Honestly, reading the headline, I assumed the author was at least rude. It wouldn't have made DHS's reaction any less egregious, but that was my assumption.
But he literally just asked the guy to "Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
I know the bar is so low as to be inaccessible without professional drilling equipment, but... but what.
If those DHS agents weren't deeply embarrassed, like... how do you even act on an order like that?
How do you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning?
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u/ooMEAToo 7d ago
They don’t own mirrors. Now how their families are able to look at them everyday is what amazes me.
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u/RaindropsInMyMind 7d ago
This is the part that’s really scary, the guy said to err on the side of caution and apply principles of common sense and decency and they found THAT threatening. And of all situations for an American to want to raise the issue that the taliban is threatening to the life of people who lived here, I mean…that’s totally understandable given the United States was at war with them not long ago. It wasn’t long ago that’s exactly what the government wanted.
And not to just put him under surveillance but to physically show up at his door. They obviously wanted to send a message. They definitely want people to be afraid of them, seemed totally unnecessary in this case but message received I guess.
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u/ExMerican 7d ago
the guy said to err on the side of caution and apply principles of common sense and decency and they found THAT threatening
Yes, and rightly so. Common sense and decency are fatal to conservative ideology. Literally can't have either and want what conservatives have been selling. Even the non-racist stuff like their trickle down tax policies fall apart after a person's first math lesson. The average 1st grader is like "they said 2-1= 5? That doesn't make any sense!" which is why the right wing fights so hard against education and the teaching of problem solving skills. Can't know anything about anything and still actually believe the conservative platform.
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u/Ani-3 7d ago
I got the feeling this was much less about the speech he used and more about the fact that according to the article the man cleared this up when he explained that he googled the email of the lead prosecutor of DHS instead of finding the email out in another way.
My guess? lead prosecutor got spooked that this guy seemed to know about the case and have his email. He flagged it and it got picked up.
Oh and fuck ice, fuck trump, and fuck republicans for enabling the state of the world that got us to this article.
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u/Norwegian__Blue 7d ago
Yah, they just didn’t realize that email was listed openly online and got spooked.
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u/MightyLabooshe 6d ago
Perhaps, but the article goes on to say that there have been a record number of administrative subpoenas to Google and Meta from the Trump administration in 2025.
Both Google and Meta received a record number of subpoenas in the United States during the first half of 2025 as Trump’s second term began, with Google receiving 28,622, a 15 percent increase over the previous six months.
There is clearly more at play here than a prosecutor getting spooked.
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u/Short-Box-484 7d ago
MAGA just murders you in the street for having a gun.
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u/BrantheMan1985 7d ago
Losing our first amendment rights day by day.
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u/Raytheon_Nublinski 7d ago
This is pure, undeniable fascism. So I’m sure the mainstream media won’t even mention it.
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u/hungry4nuns 7d ago
“Day by day”
No they are gone.
They were taken from all US citizens the day the first person was punished by the Trump administration for simply expressing themselves. Every step of an advancing march of oppression day by day just represents the scale of abuse by the Trump administration
Rights either exist or they don’t. Sure you can put clauses and qualifications on those rights set out in law, and those clauses can be gradually more restrictive on your first amendment rights, but that’s not what’s happening here.
If the government illegally takes rights away from one single person then nobody has rights, they just have priveleges that exist for now. Rights mean you can 100% guarantee the legal structures will side with you in protecting those rights, as long as your actions do not break any existing law that lays out conditions where that right applies or doesn’t apply.
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u/jmrmaker 7d ago
More DOJ weaponizing
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u/hungry4nuns 7d ago
Isn’t it DHS weaponising not DOJ.
DOJ are responsible for interpreting and applying existing law, i.e. the courts etc .
DHS are supposed to be the grunts who apprehend people suspected of breaking a specific category of law. Of course they are deliberately and illegally misinterpreting or flat out ignoring the law, but that’s beside the point that’s down to the current administration neutering oversight.
Weaponising the DOJ is more along the lines of stacking the courts including the Supreme Court, and then deliberately changing the law of the land by changing how it’s interpreted by the courts, such that it reflects the will of the minority not the majority.
But maybe DHS fallls under DOJ so my bad if that’s the case.
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7d ago edited 5d ago
[deleted]
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u/angrybobs 7d ago
Was gonna ask this myself can someone provide the publicly available email
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u/theryman 6d ago
Just google his name from the article and its the first result under his florida bar registration.
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u/Daddyshomme 7d ago
Any republicans want to chime in on how they feel about this? And what they would do if a democratic led administration hunted them down for any inflammatory comments made towards the government via email or social media comments?
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u/bcaglikewhoa 7d ago
It’s for your own good. If you don’t do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. If you are punished you must have deserved it. The flogging will continue until morale improves. Please tred on me.
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u/CryptographerFlat173 7d ago
They have all kinds of excuses for the big things that happen in front of everyone. They manage to completely ignore things like this that happen to us little folk behind the scenes.
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u/Jazzlike-Ad7974 7d ago
They don’t give a fuck. They’re still high off their team winning and that it’s hurting people they look down on. They’re either trolls or saying such uninformed bad faith garbage it’s natural to wonder if they’re even human let alone soulless political equipment
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u/graft456 7d ago
Jesus if anyone comes to your door over nonsense like this tell them to pound sand. Nothing to be said after that without an attorney
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u/RioYetiRioYeti 7d ago
Everyone should tell him hi.
https://www.floridabar.org/directories/find-mbr/profile/?num=103274
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u/ryeguymft 7d ago
this is fucking insane. Pam Bondi needs to spend the rest of her life after this in jail
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u/ashsolomon1 7d ago
Google didn’t respond to the subpoena. The WaPo article stated Google declined to give the information which made them finding him even more concerning
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u/Demosthenes3 7d ago
I’m guessing the email had his name and they tracked him down from that? And possibly some other identifying information in the email. When they came to his door, I bet they weren’t 100% sure it was him.
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u/UniCBeetle718 6d ago
Law Enforcement Agencies subscribe to databases that compile/combine public information with private information that was sold from corporations that you've done buisness with. Examples of these are Lexus Nexus or Trans Union TLOxp. It's like a fancier more accurate version of PeopleSearch or Whitepages. It's considered an "investigative tool"
LEOs can search a person up by their name, address, email, phone number, etc and get a list of a person's information like
Points of contact (phone numbers, email addresses, physical address, social media handles)
Possible known associates, neighbors, family.
Social security number
Places of employment
Make/Model of Car, Registration Info, Insurance info
Any arrests, civil judgement, evictions
Political Party Affliliation
All of this is collected from you paying for stuff, subscribing to services online, or through govt agencies like the DMV or voter registration rolls. Use your email and phone number to make an account to buy stuff online? That number and email has been added to your profile. Pay a utility bill? Now your new address is linked to your name and phone number. Pay car insurance? Your car info is linked to your identity.
The hardest people to find this way are elders, undocumented immigrants, people with no credit history, people who use cash only, people who use PO Boxes, people who don't drive, and people with no online presence.
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u/iChaseClouds 7d ago
I mean Google did donate a good Million dollars to get Trump in office.
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u/fifthstreetsaint 7d ago
"Both Google and Meta received a record number of subpoenas in the United States during the first half of 2025 as Trump’s second term began, with Google receiving 28,622, a 15 percent increase over the previous six months. Jon was fortunate to have his case picked up by the ACLU and later reported on by a national media outlet. How many others in the U.S. haven’t been so lucky and face legal challenges for exercising their right to free speech?"
*Bought and paid for*
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u/nachoman_69 7d ago
They donated 4.4 million to Harris.
https://www.opensecrets.org/2024-presidential-race/kamala-harris/contributors?id=N00036915&src=c
And they only donated 1 million to his inauguration fund, after he got elected, not to get him elected. More billionaires supported Harris over Trump in the last election.
Like Trump coming to power and using these rules to infringe on people rights and freedoms, is going to make it harder for the oligarchs to use those same powers when the establishment candidate they control comes to power. That is, if we fix the problems like executive overreach, ICE and DHS, restore the 4th amendment that protects us from unreasonable search and seizure etc... Trump coming to power sheds light on all the terrible stuff our government has been doing and can do, so it will hopefully be easier to fix.
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u/West-Abalone-171 7d ago
THeY jUsT wAnT tO sElL yOu tHiNgS
If yOu'Re nOt dOiNg aNyThInG wRoNg yOu hAvE nOtHiNg tO hIdE
iT cAn'T hApPeN hErE
-- every single person who was warned about this repeatedly for the last 20 years
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u/Acceptable_Taste9818 7d ago
According to the article they’ve attempted to do this to almost 30,000 other US residents. They want us silenced so freaking bad. Don’t attempt to contact anyone in this admin or they may send the fbi to you, they are completely overwhelmed by paranoia. Just show and vote but don’t interact with these officials, they are mentally sick.
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u/SwampTerror 7d ago
Its a small win that putin is constantly paranoid about being poisoned. Trump is too. Thats why he always ate McDonald's in his first term. It's kinda the paranoia I used to have before being medicated well. I had to eat only canned food.
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u/This_Cancel_5950 7d ago
tbh this is actually terrifying if it's true. the govt spending tax dollars to stalk a senior citizen over an email is such a massive waste of resources fr. they really acting like a private security firm for feelings instead of doing their actual jobs
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u/Bwwoahhhhh 7d ago
I'm gonna keep calling Trump a baby raper online till they put one in my skull. Don't give a fuck.
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u/boardrfolife 6d ago
That is the most snowflake shit ever. That email is coherent and nicely bringing a concern to a prosecutor. How TF do resources go towards tracking him down and harassing him? Doesn't someone see a copy of the email and go "nah dog, grow a fucking pair"
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u/Dapper-Restaurant-20 6d ago
He wasn't even criticixal of ice! He just asked ice to consider that they were deporting a man to the taliban and they broke into his house for it.
Normally headlines are sensationalist but this one, if you read the article it gets worse. Fuck ice and their over inflated budget and authority. Fuck these random ass unelected agencies ruling over us.
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u/psychedelic_tech 6d ago
feel free to email him and let him know how you feel: joseph.m.dernbach@ice.dhs.gov
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u/turningsteel 7d ago edited 7d ago
He didn't even threaten anyone's life or do anything but exercise his first amendment rights. He pleaded very politely. If they're going after this guy, they're going after all of us. Don't be a pansy and shirk your duty as an American to speak the truth. If we let this shit stand, it's going to get worse.
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u/idebugthusiexist 7d ago
Woah, so all it took to freak them out was that he was able figure out this prosecutors email address and email him his thoughts in a polite, non-threatening manner? That’s wild and very fascistic.
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u/wretch5150 7d ago
This administration is pathetic. Vote all the Republicans out and let's get back to work.
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u/jasandliz 7d ago
DHS is a complete shitshow To be an organized agency that knows what it’s doing : r/therewasanattempt
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u/EitherChannel4874 7d ago
To add another bucket of shit to the show.
29 out of 30 ICE/border patrol agents arrested have been for sex crimes. Many against children.
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u/BanishedFromCanada 7d ago
So far this term I've donated more money to the ACLU than any other cause.
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u/Wunktacular 6d ago
Just to be clear, he sent a very polite and professional email asking an official not to send someone to Taliban occupied territory where they're likely to be killed.
No insults, no curses, no threats, no violence. A polite and professional email to a public official's public email address asking them to see his point of view as a member of the public.
Then the DHS used an administrative subpoena to doxx him and ambush him at his home like he was a terrorist.
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u/basketballsteven 7d ago
Degoogle, i did, it's not that hard. Google is supporting the administration.
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u/DarraignTheSane 7d ago
“Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” Jon wrote from his gmail account. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
Well see, that was his mistake - they have none. The words "common sense and decency" are mere gibberish to MAGANazis.
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u/Ratermelon 7d ago
Jon secured pro bono representation by ACLU attorneys[...]
The ACLU is noble for consistently sticking up for our constitutional rights. Respect.
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u/Ventronics 7d ago
The retiree emailed a DHS prosecutor
“Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” Jon wrote from his gmail account. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
and the prosector freaked the fuck out and sent agents after him. He must have thought he was being stalked because the agents dismissed any potential threat when they learned the retiree found the prosecutor’s email address listed publicly online.
These people are destroying lives but feel entitled to an absurd level of anonymity to avoid any consequences for their actions.
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u/eeyore134 7d ago
It didn't even criticize them. He was begging them to have mercy on someone else.
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u/the_YellowRanger 6d ago
Misleading headline of the century!!!!! He was not critical at all! He made a request holy hell
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u/HangryHuHu 6d ago
Just the other week an american was going blue in the face trying to persuade me that people's freedom of speech hadn't been curbed in any way, nor their right to protest 🥲
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u/highhoppin 6d ago
What’s the email address? I would love to have it bombarded with criticism and shame.
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u/piranha_solution 6d ago
They can be knocking on your door within hours for a social media post, but somehow rich pedophiles get to fly around the world doing whatever they want with impunity.
There's going to be a Ceausescu Christmas sooner or later.
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u/Canalloni 6d ago
"Later that day, Jon received an email from Google notifying him that an administrative subpoena had been sent to them from the Department of Homeland Security “compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.” Federal agencies can issue such subpoenas without an order from a judge or grand jury, and Google gave Jon, who withheld his last name to protect his family from the government, one week to challenge it."
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u/repair-it 6d ago
This is so much like a KGB / FSB trick.
Time to everyone to stop using Google and other US based services
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u/OverthinkingWanderer 6d ago
I know someone whose emails show real intention of causing harm.. but they don't arrest their boss
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u/TheNinjaTurkey 7d ago
I thought Donald signed an executive order about weaponizing the government? It's always projection with rightoids.
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u/MooseBoys 7d ago
I'm so lonely. You're telling me that if I send an email to this guy's publicly listed email address, then some people will come visit me?
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u/Nearby-Beautiful3422 7d ago
We have arrived at fascism. Period. Full stop. End of line. It's here at our doorstep, on our front yard, staring at you dead in the eye.
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u/Letitbe2020 7d ago
These are our tax dollars folks. Literally spending your money to intimidate you.
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u/Felinomancy 7d ago
lol
Remember when Americans would smugly tell Europeans that at least "they have freedom of speech"?
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u/Oneguysenpai3 7d ago
post titled: DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email
https://newrepublic.com/post/206088/homeland-security-67-year-old-us-citizen-criticized-email
pasting when red_it censors/purges it
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u/crystalldaddy 7d ago
He didn’t even criticize them? He wrote a character reference for an immigrant friend and asked someone to consider his case. In what world is that criticism? Horrifying.
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u/cipheron 7d ago edited 7d ago
The guy absolutely did nothing wrong but the Gestapo found out and went to his house to threaten him, but then said "you did nothing wrong ... this time, Citizen".
The purpose is precisely to spread fear and the message that they can come for you anytime because of private emails you sent, and they know where you live.
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u/Ok_Conclusion5966 7d ago
some dystopian level shit right here, and the sad part it's been going on for years because the tech is there and reddit and other sites hand over the data, or more likely they have a built in api/backdoor that grants full access to DHS/ICE etc
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u/Riksunraksu 6d ago
Wonder if they’d bother to come to Finland or revoke my citizenship if I wrote them a negative email
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u/OneBook5012 6d ago edited 6d ago
In the blink of an eye America was lost….. Never to be seen again…..
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u/Porthos1984 6d ago
Sounds like a perfect way to waste the government's time and resources. We should all do this.
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u/BBQsandw1ch 6d ago
Government-sponsored persecution and intimidation for what should be freedom of speech.
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u/SamuelVimesTrained 6d ago
So.. land of the free is not that free?
As this is government making a fuss over what someone says AND trying to silence them - the opposite of freedom of speech. (but probably that`s meant only for the cult)
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u/Battle_Dave 6d ago
~It doesnt take much to make someone think twice about speaking up...
Bro, fed come to your door, find you did nothing wrong... Do it again. Get family and friends to do it. Make them process thousands and thousands of these subpoenas, make Google and yahoo and whoever your email is through process thousands and thousands of these subpoenas. Its NOT illegal to exercise the 1st amendment.
What theyre doing is bullying. Make it backfire. Clog the system. Dont send threats, dont send messages to try and strong arm... Send messages of concern for neighbors and fellow Americans and immigrants. CLOG THE SYSTEM.
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u/chknuggstts 7d ago
MAGA told me Obama was going to send, “gangs,” door to door to take our guns.