A poll worker said two federal officers visited her at a voting location during New York’s primaries to confront her about a social media post she’d written criticizing the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis.Paigelynne Gonyea said the confrontation happened Tuesday while she was working at a polling place in Syracuse. Two officers gave Gonyea a written notice stating that she might be in violation of federal laws that prevent publicly posting personal information about federal officers, she said.Gonyea said the warning stemmed from a post she made on social media in January in which she posted a picture of Jonathan Ross, an ICE officer who shot and killed Good in Minneapolis during anti-ICE demonstrations that month. In the post, Gonyea wrote: “I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted.”Gonyea’s post — which she made after Ross had already been identified by the news media — is still up. She said she has no intention of taking it down.“I plan on using this experience to defend and support our First Amendment right,” Gonyea said. “Our first amendment rights definitely need to be protected now more than ever.”
Homeland Security considered post ‘doxxing’Gonyea “committed a federal crime by posting the address of an ICE law enforcement officer online” and “if you doxx our officers, we will investigate you, and you will be brought to justice,” said Lauren Bis, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland security, in a statement.Bis shared a different social media post from the same one of Gonyea’s accounts in which she said Gonyea shared Ross’s address. Part of the post was redacted.“Doxxing federal law enforcement officers is a federal crime that puts their lives and their families in serious danger,” the statement said. “This danger is not hypothetical. Our law enforcement officers are on the frontlines arresting terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists.”
