Anonymous' Barrett Brown Raided By FBI During Online Chat

SternisheFan sends this excerpt from Wired: "For the second time this year, self-proclaimed Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown was raided by the FBI. The latest dramatic incident occurred late Wednesday evening while Brown and another woman identified by some as his girlfriend were participating in an online chat on TinyChat with other individuals. Two minutes into the recorded chat session, loud voices could be heard in the background of Brown's residence in Texas while the woman in the room with him was in front of the computer screen. She quickly closed the computer screen, but the audio continued to capture events in the room as the FBI appeared to strong-arm Brown to put handcuffs on him. Brown could be heard yelling in the background. A spokeswoman in the Dallas County sheriff's office confirmed to Wired that Brown was raided last night and was booked into the county jail around 11 p.m." (Warning: the video embedded with the article contains mature language.)

Comments

Just self defense

[cpu6502]

In my opinion every individual has a right to defend himself when an intruders (or intruders) suddenly busts down the door and puts you in fear for your life. I would have no problems if a resident shot & killed the intruders.

Re:Just self defense

[silas_moeckel]

Have we stopped being civil? Was this guy a risk of flight? Did he have a history of violence? A friend committed mail fraud, they called him told him there was a warrant out for his arrest. He was asked to turn himself in, he got council they had time to review it. Assuming that everybody is a violet offender that will run is a core issue of our police system these days.

Re:Just self defense

[BlueStrat]

Depends on the nature of the "arrest"- without a Warrant, they're not operating within their authority. Seriously.

Doesn't matter.

You'll still be ventilated if they even think you look like you're going to resist, whether or not the raid is legal or not. They're trained to treat every raid as if they were going up against hardened, experienced, and well-armed enemies.

And that's what you are at that moment. An enemy to be neutralized and rendered helpless and harmless as swiftly as possible with the least risk to themselves. not the least risk to the people they're charged to protect, themselves.

Whether or not you are guilty of anything isn't their job or worry. They are a paramilitary assault & entry team. They assault and enter like they face at least an equally-armed & trained force at a minimum. Until you are face-down, restrained/cuffed, and have been searched you are potentially a heavily-armed threat.

Just look at how Amish dairy farmers were raided, and Gibson Guitars were raided. Guns drawn, like the Amish or a luthier normally pack an H&K MP5.

Strat

Re:Just self defense

[SternisheFan]

And if you ever do end up in ANY jail, be respectful to the guards, or they WILL hurt you badly. In the 90's I served 15 days in the county jail in Long Island. A guy who came in was "mouthy" to the guards there, after a couple of days they pulled him out of his cell, which was next to.mine)surrounded him (15guards) while one head guard kicked him mercilessly. Between every kick, the guard yelled, "Who's the big man NOW!! HUH? Who's the big man NOW!" I'll never forget this. Four days later they bring him back to his cell, and he must've gotten their 'message', because he didn't cause any more problems. So, if you're dealing with law enforcement, play it cool, my advice.

Re:Just self defense

[macraig]

What you described is a police state in miniature. That we're engaged in scaling it up now doesn't seem to be open to much debate, only how far along we are. Such a lovely time to be an American.

Barrett Brown only claimed to be Anonymous

[Anonymous Coward]

Barrett Brown is not Anonymous. Most of the Anons I know worth their salt think of him as a fraud. This is the problem of a leaderless, hierarchyless political movement: anyone can claim affiliation. All Barrett did was claim to orchestrate some invisible campaign against Mexican drug gangs, of which no evidence was ever actually presented, and idiot reporters lined up to print his lies verbatim.

Barrett Brown claimed affiliation with Encyclopedia Dramatica, another Internet community, on Twitter recently. Current and former ED admins lined up to denounce him as never being known there.

Barrett Brown is a liar and a fraud. His days are up now that he's finally committed the crime of threatening an FBI agent. There's no way he's getting bail.

Re:Barrett Brown only claimed to be Anonymous

[Sydin]

So he's an attention whore. That's all fine and dandy, but the last time I checked the FBI had better things to do. You just said it yourself: There's no evidence at all that he had anything to do with anonymous, its activities, or any of its affiliated groups, everything about the guy can be laid at the feet of the media, who are more than happy to sensationalize lies. If the layman on the internet knows that, the FBI knows that. So why are they raiding his house? What's there to gain? Well, it sends a strong message. It scares people. Oh right, that's what the FBI is for these days. Barrett Brown's lack of affiliation with anonymous isn't what makes this newsworthy, it's that despite knowing that, the FBI were more than happy to ruin him in order to send a message.

Re:Not news

[girlintraining]

Generally, a spokesperson for a group of interest would be approached calmly, not raided (which makes it news).

The spokespeople of multinational crime syndicates tend not to be well-regarded by law enforcement. I know, it's confusing.

Re:Not news

[Hatta]

In other news, we're still waiting for Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of a company responsible for hundreds of felony counts of perjury and fraud, to take the same ride. The rule of law is dead in America.

Re:Not news

[hairyfeet]

Oh horseshit, have you been watching CSI or something? Short of sticking explosive to the things ANY software based tool is gonna take a SERIOUSLY long time to even do a single pass and simply pulling the plug would kill that shit quick.

Now one could argue that MAYBE, just maybe, he had something like truecrypt on the drive but if that was the case simply popping the power switch with his foot would be enough to unmount the drive so kicking in the door wouldn't help shit anyway and a better strategy would be to simply grab this guy on the way to his car where he don't know shit is going on or bug his PC when he isn't at home.

Nope the whole point of shit like this is INTIMIDATION, its to make YOU scared to speak up against them. Look at this nice little Jewish girl that gets to be hassled and intimidated every time she flies anywhere by being put on the watchlist, her crime? Speaking about your constitutional rights.

I'm sorry but LEOs aren't the good guys anymore, they are pitbulls used by the state to keep the peasants scared of speaking up or talking back.

Wrong people for the job

[dbIII]

Sending in a paramilitary force to arrest some guy for a crime that is of the same degree of violence as stealing a stapler from a workplace really just shows a lack of professionalism and a willingness to waste resources on overkill. I wonder what the real soldiers think of these idiots playing soldiers in such minor situations. What good is a SWAT team if they are diluted so much that their members are unlikely to meet situations where they are actually required? A hundred curb stomp situations is a pointless amount of experience for a group that you want to rely on when there is a real threat of something requiring a paramilitary response.