Many Debian users received spam from Donald Norwood through the debian-news email list and social media networks this week.
Norwood has attacked a developer with over 20 years experience.
Looking at Norwood's own profile, we see that he has never made a single package. He is one of the non-developing developers. Many of these non-developing developers are wives and girlfriends who have an honorary title. We don't know exactly how Norwood got this title but nonetheless, if he never made a package himself, how can he judge the competence of a real Debian Developer?
Any genuine expulsion involves a tribunal or grievance process where both sides get to review the evidence together and the accused has a right of reply. When we look at the accusations from Norwood, there is no hint of any evidence, no references, no report from any tribunal. It is pure defamation.
Moreover, the volunteer in question was never actually a member of Software in the Public Interest, the incorporated association. It simply isn't possible to expel somebody who is not a member. To falsely claim that a non-member was expelled is much like bouncing a cheque, it is a fraudulent assertion in every way.
Why?
It is important to ask the question: why did Donald Norwood spontaneously decide to attack this volunteer?
Norwood's behavior is entirely consistent with a mafia gangster. This is the work of somebody who can not cook but he goes into a restaurant and demands a free lunch. He threatens to write defamatory reviews on social media and TripAdvisor if the restaurant does not obey his Code of Conduct and serve him for free.
Of course there is more to it than that. It looks like Debian is keen to discredit anybody who may ask questions about the relationships between leadership figures and the women/students doing internships. There have been a number of high-profile cases recently, including the Albanian women granted an internship after 2 years of close encounters with Debian leader Chris Lamb and the Mozilla Tech Speaker grooming an underage girl for Outreachy.
Reading between the lines, the defamatory publication from Norwood is telling all the other volunteers that if we ask probity questions, we will be banned/censored from all Debian's communications infrastructure.
Facts
Donald Norwood's attack was purely political. We present some facts to prove it:
- The community elected the victim as the FSFE Fellowship representative in 2017
- The same victim submitted a nomination for the role of Debian Project Leader in 2019
- The same victim submitted a nomination for the Fedora Council in 2020
- Donald Norwood published the attack shortly before the victim arrived at the annual meeting of Swiss financial institution
Prosecuting Donald Norwood
We don't want to encourage any Kyle Rittenhouse antics but nonetheless if you need to make a private prosecution for harassment you need to go to the court house with the address of the suspect.
New York business records contain the details of Norwood's home in Brooklyn which is also used as a business address:
The Portalus Group Corporation
Director: Donald Norwood
512 Monroe Street
Brooklyn NY 11221
Jury accepts argument that Rittenhouse acted in self defense when faced by a lynch mob
