Briana Boston, Free Speech, and the Thin Line Between Anger and Terrorism

Why not feather and tar Briana Boston at the next World Economic Forum, too?

There’s a reason you can’t scream “shooter” at a movie theater. You can’t yell “bomb” at an airport, either. These limitations don’t hinder free speech, as causing panic and potential harm to make people react over a lie shouldn’t be protected by the First Amendment. Common sense.

But why was a 42-year-old mom from Florida who allegedly told a health insurance worker, “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next” after being denied a health insurance claim, reported, arrested, and placed on $100k bond for threats to conduct a mass shooting and/or act of terrorism? All that for getting pissed off at a customer service agent?

Should Briana Boston have used the words written on an assassin’s bullets to express her anger at being denied a basic human right? Fuck no. Do I think she was going to act on her threat and gun down a CEO or go to a healthcare meeting and light up the boardroom? Also, fuck no.

Still, a simple “Fuck you” would have been kinder. Or any other angry reaction. Briana shouldn’t have said, “delay, deny, and depose.” But what makes zero sense is to charge her with a felony for those words. Back in the day, people threatened violence. Kids, me included, used to say, “I’ll kill you.” And it didn’t lead to a school police officer arresting anyone. Hell, we didn’t even have school police officers back in my day.

Do I feel for the worker who reported Briana? Yeah, that’s someone trying to make a living in our fucked up world who felt threatened by an upset customer. Customer service is an incredibly tough way to earn a living. Especially if you have to tell people they’re being denied a basic human right. We all make deals with the devil in one way or another, usually for money.

People are on edge, drones in the sky, mass shooters free on the streets, and a crippling, death-causing health insurance industry doesn’t help. I myself am on the edge of my seat hoping the next “American Nightmare” doesn’t happen in my hometown. Can’t blame an overwhelmed and underpaid worker for having a breakdown when hearing delay, deny, depose directed at them. If a supervisor heard the call and notified authorities, there’s nothing wrong with a human protecting another person. Don’t demonize an average American for reacting to fear in today’s world. That person did nothing wrong.

With the temperature of the world, and the American public, I understand why the authorities got involved. The internet is angry and violent, but for once seemingly all unified. The internet also makes it easy to find people. It’s why healthcare executives scrubbed photos and location information from their company websites and bios. Everyone can be found. Even where you work.

Speaking of which, Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi shed some interesting light on this, Briana and her own experience with threats on her life.

“Like every woman who has the temerity to express an opinion on the internet, I regularly get sent death and rape threats. I regularly get people harassing me with language that is a lot more explicit than ‘delay, deny, depose’. I normally just ignore all this because it’s best not to feed the trolls, and I know the police won’t do anything. But at one point, when I got an extremely unsettling object sent to my home address, I went to the police. What did they do? Yep, you’ve guessed it: absolutely nothing.”

Why is Briana’s threat being taken more seriously than Arwa’s? Arwa’s was much more serious, considering rape, death, and “an object” being delivered to her house.

But hey, boys will be boys.

You don’t have to agree with Arwa’s opinion, but she has a right to it. This is America, correct? She shouldn’t be getting those threats. If she reported every comment, email, message, would the cops arrest and throw the book at these keyboard warriors? She already told you the answer. Law enforcement isn’t listening. They’re not taking the violence directed at her seriously. Why?

Relax conservatives. I got an example you’ll like, too.

“Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.”

— Madonna

The pop icon said that to over 500,000 Americans during the Women’s March in 2017. She was pissed off at Donald Trump and his supporters’ politics. She needed to vent, so she threatened democracy, the President, and White House visitors with a bomb in a public place at a large gathering? Was she arrested? Charged? Ha. She didn’t mean it. Come on. It’s Madonna. She can say that. It’s a shame we didn’t go by the Briana Boston book of justice. We’d have headline gold, “Pop Icon Arrested for Thinking Too Much About Blowing Up the White House.”

Briana Boston said something very stupid and wrong while distraught. Madonna thinks about blowing up the White House a lot and expressed that sentiment to a crowd of 500,000 women, including impressionable young girls. One of those people is being charged as a terrorist and facing fifteen years behind bars. You know who isn’t?

Imagine if someone delivered a letter that said, “Deny, delay, depose” to the CEO of Cigna. Don’t do that, please. Or use any of my writing to condone any violent actions. But if someone did, I bet the Feds would have the letter writer in handcuffs within 48 hours. Direct threat on the life of a public figure. That poor soul would get the chair if the States would allow it. Which once again begs the question, who are law enforcement and federal agencies truly serving? The people or those with influence?

Delay, deny, depose shouldn’t be outlawed, but it shouldn’t be used to threaten anything other than a system. All humans included. Even the ones you hate. There’s a difference.

If you think writing about this is giving into the demands of a terrorist, allow me to explain how history works in one sentence. It’s written by the winners. That means the truth is their perspective. Nelson Mandela was once considered a terrorist. “Deeds, not words” was the rallying cry of the women’s suffrage movement in the United Kingdom. Do you know what they did? Over 300 bombings and arson. Five people died and 24 were hurt. But guess what? It worked, giving women the right to vote.

Death and destruction are horrible, but did it make fighting for the right to vote wrong? Shit, women couldn’t vote themselves. I bet they’d be arrested if too many gathered in a public place without the supervision of a man back then. What were English women supposed to do in the early 1900s? Start a hashtag movement?

This doesn’t justify Briana’s threat. Violence is not the answer. It’s not what we need. Personally, I’m a big fan of Gandhi’s and Martin Luther King Jr’s approach to oppression. But what we really need is leadership. Beefing up security, developing a hotline for scared suits, writing editorials shaming the public that are inaccurate with American history, and over-punishing Briana Boston is not leadership, it’s cowardice. These actions fuel a fire that doesn’t need to burn. I don’t want bombs, fires, violence, or any more death. That includes denied claims, too. If one untimely death is abhorrent, then what about the 45,000 untimely deaths every year related to health insurance denials, costs, or lack of it?

That stat is probably way more since it’s not researched, and hasn’t been in over a decade.

Giant corporations and businesses are making record profits, while the regular Americans are maxing out their credit cards. CEOs earn 268 times more than the average worker. Medical debt is responsible for 66% of bankruptcies. Billionaires are a thing of the past, trillionaires will become a regular thing soon. I don’t even earn $100,000 a year. If I did, I would need 10,000 jobs to make a billion dollars. Americans are oppressed. The response is always “stop buying things”, “don’t travel”, and “penny pinch.” That’s leadership? Spend my entire life miserable and broke, making rich people richer? What evidence do I have that things will get better for the average person in my lifetime?

The media and internet at first overwhelmed the world with the words. “Delay, deny, depose.” Now, the words are being muted and classified as hate speech. Supporters of healthcare reform have been using “Delay, deny, depose” as a rallying cry for their cause. Graffiti is popping up all over the world, “Delay, deny, depose.”

There are those blood-thirsty, begging for protests, and more violence like our ancestors during American Populist movements, but most people don’t want to see a man gunned down in the streets or go bankrupt because they got cancer. Both are horrific. Let’s stop the dick measuring contest of what’s worse. There’s no moral high ground here. People are dying right now because of the healthcare industry in America. You can be against the murder of Brian Thompson and want healthcare reform in America. But to throw the book at a 42-year-old woman who was upset because she was denied healthcare and had an emotional outburst? Why not feather and tar her at the next World Economic Forum, too?

If the person who took the call felt threatened, and rightfully so, they should press charges that result in a small fine for Briana Boston. She should also do some community service. Be a better human, Briana.

But Briana’s not wrong to be disgusted with a rigged healthcare system that’s killing Americans, but misplaced anger and its resulting battles will only hijack what the “delay, deny, and depose” supporters are fighting for.