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Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

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Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#41
post #20

Here's what we just witnessed. 1. Companies were cornering certain drugs, then hiking their prices up significantly. Shkrelli did the same thing (but stated he was willing to give it free for anyone who asked). Note, that this is not illegal in any way, but news was all over it and citizens were pissed. 2. Shkrelli, being outspoken, became the focus of this issue. He dug a hole for himself, but concerning drug prices…

Shkreli has repeatedly flaunted his wealth, privilege and false sense of superiority. Although not illegal, it's offensive. Offending the public, whether right or wrong, has consequences. Shkreli is getting a taste of mob justice, or just what he asked for.

> ...Offending the public, whether right or wrong, has consequences. Shkreli is getting a taste of mob justice, or just what he asked for.

Isn't that exactly what the justice system is in place to prevent?

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#42
post #20

Here's what we just witnessed. 1. Companies were cornering certain drugs, then hiking their prices up significantly. Shkrelli did the same thing (but stated he was willing to give it free for anyone who asked). Note, that this is not illegal in any way, but news was all over it and citizens were pissed. 2. Shkrelli, being outspoken, became the focus of this issue. He dug a hole for himself, but concerning drug prices…

Don't forget 3b) had to go through hundreds of jurors while the news/twitter laughed about people saying they could not be impartial because he "had a punchable face" and "disrespected the Wu Tang Clan". Better hope you don't say anything too mean on Twitter and ever end up in court :(

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#43
post #20

Here's what we just witnessed. 1. Companies were cornering certain drugs, then hiking their prices up significantly. Shkrelli did the same thing (but stated he was willing to give it free for anyone who asked). Note, that this is not illegal in any way, but news was all over it and citizens were pissed. 2. Shkrelli, being outspoken, became the focus of this issue. He dug a hole for himself, but concerning drug prices…

[RETRACTED]

That got him kicked off Twitter but had nothing to do with the legality of this case.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shkreli has repeatedly flaunted his wealth, privilege and false sense of superiority. Although not illegal, it's offensive. Offending the public, whether right or wrong, has consequences. Shkreli is getting a taste of mob justice, or just what he asked for.

You only go to jail for being offensive in authoritarian-ruled governments. If we're not better than mob justice, please install decent people in NYC's legal system.

Since when? You can always get yourself in trouble by pissing off the public, regardless of government structure.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only go to jail for being offensive in authoritarian-ruled governments. If we're not better than mob justice, please install decent people in NYC's legal system.

Since when? You can always get yourself in trouble by pissing off the public, regardless of government structure.

You don't go to jail for 7 years for it. (Supposedly) not in first world countries.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shkreli has repeatedly flaunted his wealth, privilege and false sense of superiority. Although not illegal, it's offensive. Offending the public, whether right or wrong, has consequences. Shkreli is getting a taste of mob justice, or just what he asked for.

> ...Offending the public, whether right or wrong, has consequences. Shkreli is getting a taste of mob justice, or just what he asked for. Isn't that exactly what the justice system is in place to prevent?

No, it’s what the justice system is in place to formalize.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#47
post #20

Here's what we just witnessed. 1. Companies were cornering certain drugs, then hiking their prices up significantly. Shkrelli did the same thing (but stated he was willing to give it free for anyone who asked). Note, that this is not illegal in any way, but news was all over it and citizens were pissed. 2. Shkrelli, being outspoken, became the focus of this issue. He dug a hole for himself, but concerning drug prices…

> 3. Prosecutors, needing to do something got him on fraud charges where he misstated information on an investment but still tripled their money.

I don't think the outcome should matter. Lying to investors should land you in jail. It shouldn't become okay "if investors still made money"

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#48
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Your honor, I must protest this sentence! After all, my clients paid back all the money they stole from the bank!"

Worded differently, it doesn't sound like that would be such an unreasonable sentencing argument?

That was his argument. The judge decided that payback after the loss was mostly irrelevant, and loss is loss, even if never realized.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#49
post #23
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it's how he got into the mess. Without illegal actions there are no sentencing procedures.

It's not quite that easy, unfortunately. The vast majority of us, just by sheer ignorance of the contents of the enormous Federal Register, unknowingly commit at least a few federal felonies per year. If the Feds want you in prison, they'll find a way.

> The vast majority of us, just by sheer ignorance of the contents of the enormous Federal Register, unknowingly commit at least a few federal felonies per year.

Federal felonies (and federal crimes more generally) are defined by the US Code, and almost entirely Title 18 of that Code, not the Federal Register.

The Federal Register is the regular publication of regulatory process documents, most of which is notices and procedural background information; the operational material from the Federal Register is codified in, for the most part, the Code of Federal Regulations (which is much smaller than the Federal Register; while not a perfect analogy, you could think of the Federal Register as the Git repository for the Code of Federal Regulations, with commit messages that usually far exceed the size of code changes.)

The CFR itself is occasionally relevant to defining the parameters of crimes (not all of which are felonies), in that in certain cases Congress has made violation of certain regulatory orders criminal. But it's only a very small share of the CFR (itself much smaller than the Federal Register) that is relevant to that.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#50

I used to watch some of his investment tutorials on youtube as well as other videos. For someone called the "most hated man in America", he actually seemed like a nice person. I also enjoyed his trollish sense of humor.

> I also enjoyed his trollish sense of humor.

I think that makes the title that much easier to understand. I'm an old-fuddy-duddy (for example, I say things like 'fuddy-duddy'), but to me there are two forms of trolling.

One where you're doing it to get their reaction and entertainment when they get it. I find this usually fun - the person doing it has fun, any audience has fun, and the person has that anguish-relief-joy cycle. When you do this to someone, you aren't gaining joy from the first emption your stoking, you get joy when it's found out and that emotion changes. The trolling itself is building anticipation. An example: My wife bought me a PalmPilot (back when those were a thing) but secretly took it out of the package to charge it, then gifted the surprisingly-not-much-lighter box to me. After my moment of feeling like I'd have to wait longer for my new toy (to try and return it) she revealed it fully-charged, and we had a laugh.

The second way is subtly different. The trolls are still poking at a person's emotions. They can SAY the target should get it and enjoy it ("relax, it's just a joke"), but really the goal is to entertain the troll and any audience. The targets of this trolling don't get a laugh. They get anxiety/hate/fear/dread/panic/anger or whatever, and the troll gains satisfaction from that, not from when that ends. Example: Posting political/moral thoughts that you don't have, but that are deliberately chosen to invoke outrage within the forum you are posting to, then moving on to the next once that's gotten enough reaction.

I'm obviously biased, but while I can appreciate the first kind, the second kind just seems to be increasing the misery in the world for a laugh. Laughs aren't so hard to get in other ways. Misery is miserable, by definition.

So if someone is described as a "troll" I tend to be leery rather than eager. When I encounter someone, it's very easy to find EITHER kind of trolling annoying. Perhaps because your brain is trying to fit people into a context/schema and trolling disrupts that. Brains don't tend to react well to that sort of thing. Known friends and family don't cause that reaction.

I don't know anything about Shkreli other than what I've read, but if you say "most hated man in America" and "trollish sense of humor", my instinct is to nod knowingly.

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