Internet Hackers Wage War On St. Louis County Police Chief

People aren’t satisfied with the manner the city of Ferguson, Missouri is dealing with the slaying of unarmed teen Michael Brown and some are taking matters into their own hands.

The Washington Post reports an Internet hacker activist group known as Anonymous has launched an attack on St. Louis County Police Chief John Belmar. Just days after a Ferguson Police officer shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, riots and looting permeated the city. Anonymous issued a warning to police, “we are watching you very closely.” Their next step was to post a photo of Belmar’s house and later his address and telephone number on Twitter.

The following day, photos of the police chief and his wife found their way on to the world wide web. The photo came with the comment, “Nice photo, Jon. Your wife actually looks good for her age. Have you had enough?”

The onslaught of photos increased in the bizarre. Pictures claiming to be inside of Belmar’s home of someone sleeping on a couch was posted on social media with the caption, “He sees you when you sleep, he knows when you’re awake.” Another photo of his wife and daughter hit the Internet.

Anonymous is a global collective of hackers and activists who have targeted major companies in the past. They similarly waged war on Visa and Master Card when they denied members right to donate to WikiLeaks. Anonymous sent out a press release in which they also spoke to the police:

If you abuse, harass — or harm in any way the protesters in Ferguson we will take every Web-based asset of your departments and governments off line. That is not a threat, it is a promise. If you attack the protesters, we will attack every server and computer you have. We will dox and release the personal information on every single member of the Ferguson Police Department, as well as any other jurisdiction that participates in the abuse. We will seize all your databases and E-Mail spools and dump them on the Internet. This is your only warning.

Anonymous then crashed the Internet at police headquarters and email went down as well. The hacking group flooded the city police website with traffic with their latest victim being the police chief. Anonymous threatened to distribute his daughter’s information if John Belmar didn’t release the name of the officer who killed Michael Brown, but later relented. No reason for the cease fire was given. Anonymous hasn’t completely given up the fight just yet. They have just released the audio of the 911 call from that day.