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

Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

falkvinge.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 172 posts

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#71

Post by kamjam »

res0nat0r wrote: post #52
olefoo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in the midst of changing the tense; I should have written it in emacs and then copied it into the form once I was happy with it. So it goes. I'm actually wondering whether a more considered phrasing would have done worse. As it is the main goal of putting the headline into Barack Obama's eyeballs has been reached, and Ms. Ortiz knows that her boss is making the political calculation of whether she is a liabilit…

Unfortunately this will come no where near close to the President's eyeballs. It will be reviewed and responded to by some low level staff group who has been tasked to wade thru all of the petitions (and nonsense like the Death Star) which get 25k votes.

So the alternative is to do nothing? Which is better? At least this gets some momentum going, hopefully being picked up by press, maybe even them questioning the president about it at some later interview.

Doing nothing means nothing will get done. This is probably exactly what the government would like you to do.

"The people rose up and caused a sea change in Washington" ~ Aaron Swartz

This last part of his speech is so powerful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgh2dFngFsg&t=16m57s

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#72

Post by PrudenceYuris »

throwaway271 wrote: post #67

Ortiz was nominated to her position by Obama in 2009. She resides in Milton, MA where it just so happens Gov Patrick, Obama's close personal friend also resides. She's well-connected and a double diversity quota. She's going nowhere.

Which is why efforts to end her career should go forward with as little restraint as her prosecution

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#73

Post by res0nat0r »

Why is there not this type of outpouring of rage and internet hate the last few days for someone who is seriously being railroaded: Bradley Manning.

This is a person who has been locked up into solitary for months now and is being treated very inhumanely. Is it because he hasn't written any Python libraries and isn't visible in Silicon Valley?

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#74

Post by res0nat0r »

throwit1979 wrote: post #70
res0nat0r wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He could have either taken 6 months and the charge, or the maximum sentence. Note: This happens every single day for all types of crimes all around the US.

You can either hand me your wallet, or I shoot you in the face with this gun. This happens every single day for all types of people in the US. Man, mugging and extortion sounds so much better now that I realize how often it happens. Thanks, res0nat0r!

I'm not sure how 6 months of jail time for repeatedly breaking the law is anywhere near "extortion".

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#75

Post by jlgreco »

res0nat0r wrote: post #65
miahi wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find the "other top HN post right now" regarding this, but as I understand it [paraphrasing], nobody told him "hey, you'll probably get 6 months", they only told him "hmm, you can reduce it to 25 years. maybe. if you beg."

http://betabeat.com/2013/01/tom-dolan-defends-carmen-ortiz-a...

Yes, we are all aware of the plea bargain. There have been several discussions about it already; I think most of us are disturbed by the implications of the practice.

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#76

Post by jlgreco »

res0nat0r wrote: post #74
throwit1979 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can either hand me your wallet, or I shoot you in the face with this gun. This happens every single day for all types of people in the US. Man, mugging and extortion sounds so much better now that I realize how often it happens. Thanks, res0nat0r!

I'm not sure how 6 months of jail time for repeatedly breaking the law is anywhere near "extortion".

Considering the nature of the "crime" and the nature of prison, I'm not sure how you could possibly not be sure of that.

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#77

Post by jerf »

numbsafari wrote: post #21
fr0sty wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not trying to equivocate. GGP commment made an unqualified statement "action in government is slow" adding that the idea of "drastic action" was a "fantasy". I countered by noting that in the present day the government is moving very fast on at least one particular issue. We will know tomorrow whether the action is drastic. Full stop.

Full stop? How many mass murders has it taken to get to this point? How is that "drastic" or "very fast"? Oh, wait, there's a commission that might "recommend" we re-enact legislation that expired a few years ago? How is that "drastic"? How is that "very fast"? As the GGP said, what's gonna happen first is an investigation and a review. Why the need to jump to "vigilante justice"? The end result of "vigilante justice…

Mass murders may be flashy, but they are not a large problem. They only feel large. Immediate fast response here is a political tool to push policies that have little to do with stopping school shootings, not a governance tool. (Evidence: almost no proposed policies show any evidence that they could have prevented this shooting, even if they were magically 100% effective; for instance, "more background checks" doesn't prevent someone from stealing a gun obtained by somebody else, as in this case, and so on.)

Prosecutor overreach is a much more widespread problem, though absolute quantification is difficult. It isn't hard to rate it as a much bigger problem than mass murders, because mass murders are a very, very small problem right now. It may not rate next to our other problems we face right now, though.

(If saying mass murders aren't a big problem right now bothers you, let me also make this observation, which is that non-mass murders are also a much bigger problem than mass murders. Just the murders that can be directly traced to our War on Drugs, many of which also hit school-aged children, is a much larger problem than mass murder right now. Murders in Chicago alone is a significantly larger problem than mass murders.)

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#78

Post by smsm42 »

res0nat0r wrote: post #63
jivatmanx wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He refused to surrender, so it's fair to go nuclear?

He could have either taken 6 months and the charge, or the maximum sentence. Note: This happens every single day for all types of crimes all around the US.

That's the most terrible thing about it - it happens every day that people are bullied into surrendering their right to fair trial, and nobody cares. With current system, the right for fair trial is mainly for somebody that could afford to spend a million dollar on it or that is famous enough to have public support and donations. For average Joe, once you got charged with a crime, your life is ruined in any case, whatever jury says. And given that prosecutors have much more knowledge of how juries work than you - getting a bargain may be your only chance to be free in next 10 years or so.

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#79

Post by AnthonyMouse »

numbsafari wrote: post #27
npsimons wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's try to eliminate the equivocating, shall we? One the one hand, we have someone who was being threatened with being imprisoned for half his life, for doing something that couldn't have possibly merited that kind of retribution. On the other hand, we have a person being threatened with being removed from an position of power so that she (hopefully) can't abuse power over others again. She most likely will be able…

I'm not referring to her losing her job. I'm referring to the threats of vigilante justice that seem to be going around, as mentioned by the linked article.

Vigilante justice is what happens when actual justice is not available. If you don't like vigilante justice, ensure actual justice.

Re: Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal

#80

Post by waterlesscloud »

res0nat0r wrote: post #65
miahi wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find the "other top HN post right now" regarding this, but as I understand it [paraphrasing], nobody told him "hey, you'll probably get 6 months", they only told him "hmm, you can reduce it to 25 years. maybe. if you beg."

http://betabeat.com/2013/01/tom-dolan-defends-carmen-ortiz-a...

The prosecutor's husband is attacking people online for stating the government's own position?

The 35 year figure came from the prosecutors. If they didn't want it circulated, perhaps they shouldn't have trumpeted it to the media.

Right here, in their own press release. http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2011/07/Swartz...

"If convicted on these charges, SWARTZ faces up to 35 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, restitution, forfeiture and a fine of up to $1 million."

If they're happy to use the figure when seeking media attention, they have to accept its use when they're in trouble.

Post reply on HN