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Aaron Swartz commits suicide

tech.mit.edu

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Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#411

Post by kabdib »

jacques_chester wrote: post #258
jacquesm wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you can see I'm not a firm believer in the 'this is my job so I do what I'm told' concept. Everybody - including prosecutors - gets to decide what they do for themselves. If your job is so repugnant that you go after good people you have to question your own morality. Just following orders isn't good enough for me.

I doubt they were "just following orders". Nobody selects into public legal work for the money. They would have been doing what they think is the right thing to do : prosecute suspects aggressively. That you have a different criteria for what cases to prosecute doesn't make them evil.

> They would have been doing what they think is the _right thing_ to do: prosecute suspects aggressively

Or the "thing" that improves their career, or annual review.

Let's see: Essentially defenseless hacker-type, historical success of draconian prosecution strategies, and penalties /way/ outside the realm of reason because of fanned-up hyperbole, fear and misunderstanding in the criminal justice system.

Low-hanging fruit, to a prosecutor. Three before breakfast every day. Aaron probably did not _matter_ once he was in the system.

Cases won versus cases lost. In this one, we all lost.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#412

Post by Zak »

jacques_chester wrote: post #186
jacquesm wrote: post #159

Man this so sucks. If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn't have anything to do with Aaron killing himself. For some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn't commit is enough to push them over the edge. When you're placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don't han…

You've confused the roles of judges and a prosecutors. They're not the same.

A prosecutor's duty and role is to seek justice[0]. Justice isn't always black and white, but it certainly isn't applying the toughest charges that could possibly be made to stick nor seeking the highest possible penalty in every case. The prosecutor should attempt to determine what a just outcome to a case would be, then seek to achieve it.

[0] http://www.americanbar.org/publications/criminal_justice_sec...

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#413

Post by zapdrive »

beadmomsw wrote: post #252

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful. Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable. Aaron's mother

He is a legend. And legends never die, they stay in the minds of generations to come.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#414

Post by ceol »

benesch wrote: post #109
ceol wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder why some people here are assuming this tragedy is because of the JSTOR incident. It seems to me that everyone should just meditate on what's been lost, and defer judgement about why he would do this until there is evidence. Thank you so much. It's awful to see people in here blaming the trial when suicide is much more complex than a single incident pushing someone to the edge like that.

See charonn0's comment below ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047044 ). "This sort of stress tends to eat away at your insides. You can't make long-term plans of any kind; meet a nice person at the bar and you're reminded that you can't start anything serious since you might be going away for a long time. A thousand tiny reminders every day that you are already a prisoner and will be for an indefinite period wh…

Apparently he suffered from depression for many years: http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#415

Post by cullenking »

I read this as I was preparing to head to my brothers memorial service in a couple of hours. He committed suicide last week.

I just wanted to say that I understand why some people do it. My brother suffered from schizophrenia - he was an incredibly nice and giving person who kept on hurting people due to his disease. I understand why he took his own life and I don't fault him for it. Of course I am incredibly sad about it and wish I could have done so much more, but 20 years of intense suffering wears on a person.

We don't know the exact details behind Aaron's decision. A significant percent of the people who knew Stephen, even those who knew him well, didn't know about his diagnosis either. It's impossible to draw any more conclusion than "he was suffering and couldn't bear the burden anymore". My condolences to his family, I truly know what they are going through and it's absolutely shit.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#416

Post by wglb »

beadmomsw wrote: post #252

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful. Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable. Aaron's mother

Deepest sympathies to you and your family and all who loved him.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#418

Post by makmanalp »

For the record, a few months ago we had a back and forth about his writing process, and he was kind enough to write one of his pieces in one of those editors that keeps track of your changes so you can see the piece evolving. Very insightful.

At the end of that, I wrote a reply commenting on what I thought about his writing process, and never got anything back. He must have not been feeling great at that point.

I feel bad now.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#419

Post by dholowiski »

tricolon wrote: post #219

I never met Aaron Swartz but always wanted to. His work has had a profound impact on my life. His blog was thought-provoking. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ His work on the RSS 1.0 Specification enabled richer, more efficient information consumption. http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec His work on Markdown enabled intuitive, unobtrusive formatting and structuring of information in plaintext and conversion to HTML. h…

Many sub-reddits have formed around various types of support groups. Reddit has changed my life, so I guess Aaron Swartz is partially to thank.
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