Briana Boston, a working-class woman fighting a health insurance claims denial, has been arrested for saying “delay, deny, depose” on a phone call to her insurer. The judge has set her bail at $100,000, “considering the status of our country.”
A working-class woman fighting a health insurance claims denial has been arrested after ending a call with Blue Cross Blue Shield with a comment falsely construed as a credible threat.
Briana Boston, a forty-two-year-old mother, has no criminal history, does not own a gun, and has insisted to police that she is “not a danger to anyone.” But in the wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s recent murder, Boston is being made an example of by a frightened ruling class that’s hungry for vengeance.
Near the end of her call, Boston referenced the health insurance industry’s “delay, deny, depose” strategy for avoiding paying claims — words that Thompson’s assassin wrote on the bullets fired at Thompson. She added that “You people are next.”
The threat wasn’t any more egregious than ones casually issued by members of the ruling class on a regular basis. Just last month, for example, incumbent President Donald Trump said of Rep. Liz Cheney, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?”
But there are two major differences here. The first is that, unlike Boston’s threat, Trump’s is actually credible. And the second is that, unlike Trump, Boston is facing consequences.
Despite pleas to be released on her own recognizance, Boston’s judge has already set her bond at $100,000. For comparison, bond for rape in Lakeland is $75,000. Boston is being charged with “threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism,” according to WFLA News.
While Thompson’s comments, taken literally, amount to a threat, any reasonable listener should be able to conclude that she was simply voicing her frustration with a notoriously onerous insurance claims process, that she did not intend to follow through with her threat, and evidently did not even have the means to do so. By trying to make an example out of her, Lakeland authorities are abandoning any pretense of proportional justice for the specific crime committed.
Supporters have already set up multiple GoFundMes to pay off Boston’s bond, though the fundraising site has already taken one of them down. One can also send money to Boston through accesscorrections.com, choosing Polk County Detention Facilities as her agency and the ID# 2435323. I strongly encourage readers to donate to Boston’s legal defense.