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Lovely.
Every single government actor involved in this case is far more guilty than Ross and, frankly, they are the ones that deserve prison.
Yes, Ross should have realized you can't massively break the law and get away with it. He made a big mistake.
But the mistake he made was assuming that other people were more benevolent than they really are.
This young man viewed the world with a child-like, rosy-eyed perspective, and for that, he gets crushed by the boot of government brutality.
Disclaimer: I have no involvement with any dark nets or online drug trade.
edit: I don't know if he hired hitmen and if he did, I suspect it was in his own defense.
I can't say I know every detail of the case but I don't recall anyone getting killed or even hurt by Mr. Ulbricht so in my mind the punishment does not fit the crime. IMHO the death penalty should be off the table completely (go Nebraska!) and life in prison reserved for only violent offenders. You can argue that he enabled people to harm themselves but I think that's stretching it. If people want to take drugs, even take too much drugs their going to get it somewhere. If drugs were legal and treatment of abuse the focus instead of punishment Silk Road wouldn't have existed in the first place.
My condolences go to the mutual friends Ross and I share. Honestly, I don't have much sympathy for him directly (due to his complete and utter stupidity and lack of opsec), but I know this is going to hurt some people I care about, people who were good friends with Ross back in college, and I feel bad for them .
Murderers get less than that. We are truly an interesting society, aren't we - somehow kids doing LSD, a mostly harmless substance, is causing us more harm, as a society, than, say, violence?
Ulbricht was also convicted of hiring a hitman. edit: this is something that vice news [0] reported that is apparently wrong. > But despite these setbacks, Ulbricht was ultimately convicted in February on a raft of charges, including drug trafficking, computer hacking, money laundering, and hiring assassins to take out members of Silk Road. [0]: https://news.vice.com/article/ross-ulbricht-convicted-master...
Murderers get less than that. We are truly an interesting society, aren't we - somehow kids doing LSD, a mostly harmless substance, is causing us more harm, as a society, than, say, violence?
Ulbricht was also convicted of hiring a hitman. edit: this is something that vice news [0] reported that is apparently wrong. > But despite these setbacks, Ulbricht was ultimately convicted in February on a raft of charges, including drug trafficking, computer hacking, money laundering, and hiring assassins to take out members of Silk Road. [0]: https://news.vice.com/article/ross-ulbricht-convicted-master...
Apparently his first attempt he hired an fbi agent, posing as a hit man and his second attempt seems to have been a con-job...
He tried though. Apparently the fbi agent sent fake photos as proof.
Article from Ars Comments. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-12-09/us-says-si...
Murderers get less than that. We are truly an interesting society, aren't we - somehow kids doing LSD, a mostly harmless substance, is causing us more harm, as a society, than, say, violence?
Or the same. Or more, in the form of the death penalty.
That seems way too harsh to me. I have strong opinions on the US War on Drugs and it's failure to meaningful deal with drug use/abuse in the USA. And I feel even worse about how it's spilling out into the rest of the world as we go "global" with everything. I can't say I know every detail of the case but I don't recall anyone getting killed or even hurt by Mr. Ulbricht so in my mind the punishment does not fit the cr…
Murderers get less than that. We are truly an interesting society, aren't we - somehow kids doing LSD, a mostly harmless substance, is causing us more harm, as a society, than, say, violence?
Ulbricht was also convicted of hiring a hitman. edit: this is something that vice news [0] reported that is apparently wrong. > But despite these setbacks, Ulbricht was ultimately convicted in February on a raft of charges, including drug trafficking, computer hacking, money laundering, and hiring assassins to take out members of Silk Road. [0]: https://news.vice.com/article/ross-ulbricht-convicted-master...
He was convicted of the following-
Distribution/Aiding and Abetting the Distribution of Narcotics
Distribution/Aiding and Abetting the Distribution of Narcotics by Means of the Internet
Conspiracy to Distribute Narcotics
Continuing Criminal Enterprise
Conspiracy to Commit or Aid and Abet Computer Hacking
Conspiracy to Traffic in Fraudulent Identity Documents
Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering
EDIT. Neat. -3 points for posting nothing but factual information. Cool. I'll leave you all to it, then.