Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

blog.docker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 428 posts

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#81

Post by [deleted] »

samstave wrote: post #55
gist wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear that would you be willing to describe the abuse in more detail?

Without giving too much detail in public, police were called to my house and I had just finished putting my children to bed. The officer was talking to me and then asked me to step on the porch, after doing so they had asked if I had been drinking - I said yes I had wine with my dinner, why. They then arrested me and refused to tell me why - their exact words were "you know why" and took me to jail. I then had to bai…

[deleted]

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#83

Post by keithpeter »

eliteraspberrie wrote: post #53
kragen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary: let's dig up all the links we can so that we can find out who was responsible, and prevent it from ever happening again. Just before he died, Ian had said he was going to devote the rest of his life to fighting police brutality: http://pastebin.com/dX3VSPkM Not only would we dishonor his memory by not digging up links and making speculations about what happened (did he commit suicide, possibly due to…

He said on Twitter that police beat him up once, and then a second time after following him home. I hope there is a real investigation, this is enraging.

In the UK, which is a common law country, the local coroner would be involved with any death that was not expected (i.e. not an older person or someone who is terminally ill and under medical care) or in which there are suspicious circumstances. That process may involve a police investigation and, independently of that, there can be an inquest. Inquests have quite a history in the case of deaths in police custody in the UK, as a result of police action, or where there is some doubt about the probity of the police investigation (Google Hillsborough Stadium, Mark Duggan, Ian Tomlinson).

I'd appreciate if any US residents can comment on the procedures locally and I realise that procedure may vary in different states.

My first thought was 'another cancer death' but it appears to be more involved. The phrasing of the request from the family suggests to me that the situation may be more complex. I was reading this guy's blog just yesterday, odd times.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#84

Post by zipppy »

spb wrote: post #27
poikniok wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. It seems he might have died fighting for a cause. We might do well to serve his memory by thinking about and understanding his cause. To do otherwise would be to admit that we can change nothing.

I think we can stand to wait for those closest to him to release more information when they're ready.

The people closest to him may never have nor look for more information.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#85

Post by gist »

samstave wrote: post #55
gist wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear that would you be willing to describe the abuse in more detail?

Without giving too much detail in public, police were called to my house and I had just finished putting my children to bed. The officer was talking to me and then asked me to step on the porch, after doing so they had asked if I had been drinking - I said yes I had wine with my dinner, why. They then arrested me and refused to tell me why - their exact words were "you know why" and took me to jail. I then had to bai…

"police were called to my house and I had just finished putting my children to bed"

Understand that you don't want to give details but can you say why they were called to your house in the first place?

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#86

Post by spang »

Super sad to hear about this, as the Debian project has been hugely influential on my life. (It's the reason I went to MIT and became a software engineer.) Rest in peace, Ian.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#87

Post by cdk »

So very sad. Debian is what got me started with Linux. I remember dd'ing base images to floppy disks since the BIOS on the PC I was experimenting on didn't support bootable CDs. From then doing a net install seemed so futuristic at the time.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#88

Post by res0nat0r »

SwellJoe wrote: post #61
Nrsolis wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has to be something else going on when a person is confronted by the police and they decide to arrest you. I can only imagine that he was agitated somehow and may have been either mentally unstable or intoxicated. Suicide is not a normal response to being locked up by the police for a few hours.

Bullshit. Police beat the shit out of people, unprovoked, every day. They murder 12 year old boys without hesitation (Tamir Rice). They'll kill a woman in her jail cell because she knew her rights and tried to exercise them (Sandra Bland). They'll chase down (stealing a car to make the chase more exciting) and execute an innocent man because he happens to be black and trying to go into the bank where he has an accoun…

Ignoring all the nonsense from the first paragraph above, it is most likely he was having some major mental issues just due to the tweets linked here. The police were called by someone worried about him, and he is taking his anger out on them and blaming them for intervening.

There is nothing in the local papers about this so far, which is usually on par unfortunately with suicide. Sad to see another person gone due to unfortunate mental/emotional issues.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#89

Post by georgemcbay »

ultramancool wrote: post #76
kragen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary: let's dig up all the links we can so that we can find out who was responsible, and prevent it from ever happening again. Just before he died, Ian had said he was going to devote the rest of his life to fighting police brutality: http://pastebin.com/dX3VSPkM Not only would we dishonor his memory by not digging up links and making speculations about what happened (did he commit suicide, possibly due to…

I've got an idea if someone really wants to go on a hunt... This might seem incredibly nosy, but I don't think it would be too personal - check RadioReference for his city, they archive police scanner feeds, if you pay them a little, you can access the archives. If something happened and he was having some sort of mental health or drug problem, hopefully that would be mentioned, if something really did go down with t…

If the pastebinned tweets I've seen are really his then he was clearly unhinged when he made them. Whether that is due to head trauma or if the problems with the police came about because he was already having issues, I have no idea.

Either way, while I totally understand his family's request for privacy, I do wish as a culture we felt more comfortable discussing things like this when they happen instead of basically all trying to sweep it under the rug.

People shouldn't be shamed for having mental health issues, but neither should we expend so much effort on pretending like we don't have something of an epidemic going on in this area these days.

Re: In Memoriam: Ian Murdock

#90

Post by erjjones »

eddieroger wrote: post #10

This is terrible. I met Ian when we worked at the same company for a bit, and he was a great man by my interactions with him. Just heartbreaking to read. He went on a tirade the other night on Twitter after what he reported was a run-in with the police. The tweets got more incoherent as the evening went on, but it read like he was backing down from suicide. Since the linked release doesn't say that and it looks like…

Really sad ...
Post reply on HN