David Streever, a former journalist in Connecticut who now works in tech, was on vacation in Finland with his 7-year-old daughter when his doorbell camera caught federal agents at his front door. Homeland Security Investigations had come to ask about an email he sent in January to Todd Lyons, then the acting director of ICE, NPR reported. The agents also tracked him to the hotel where his family was staying.
The email was angry, and it was not a threat. Streever wrote it right after federal immigration officers shot and killed two people in Minneapolis. Under the subject line “What’s next,” he called Lyons a “monstrous human being,” said his conscience would one day torment him, and predicted he would “go down in history as America’s Reinhard Heydrich, the butcher.”
No Crime, but a Warning Anyway
Streever was never charged, because criticizing an official is not a crime. Instead, the agents left a notice describing the federal laws that make it illegal to threaten federal officials, a document that carries an unmistakable message even when no charge follows.
He was not the only one. The Streevers later learned the same agents had handed the same form to a poll worker in Syracuse earlier that day. A worker who helps run elections and a tech worker who sent an angry email have one thing in common. Both criticized or crossed the administration, and both got a visit.
Why a Doorbell Camera Should Worry You
The First Amendment protects heated, even offensive, criticism of the people in power. It protects the Nazi comparison Streever reached for, however much someone dislikes it, because the whole point is that officials do not get to decide which criticism of them is allowed.
The visit is the punishment. No one has to be arrested for the message to land. When people learn that an angry email can bring federal agents to their door while they are away with their kids, the rational response is to stop writing. That silence is the goal, and it is the opposite of what a free country protects.
What You Can Do Now
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Use the letter below to demand your senators and representative press the Department of Homeland Security to stop opening “threat” investigations into constituents for protected political speech, and to hold oversight hearings on how many Americans have been visited, warned, or tracked for criticizing the administration.
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Call your members of Congress at (202) 224-3121. Ask whether they think federal agents should show up at the home of someone who sent an angry email but committed no crime, and ask them to demand answers from DHS about how these cases are opened.
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Know your rights. If agents come to your door, you do not have to let them in without a judicial warrant or answer their questions. The ACLU’s guide explains what to say and what to sign, which is nothing.