I think it's great that his LinkedIn page is still online.
Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
421–430 of 641 posts
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#422That 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…
In addition to the murders for hire that the other commentators mentioned, the prosecution presented 6 case studies of people dying because of drug overdoses/other related effects of drugs bought on silk road. The prosecution also had two parents in two of these cases come to court to give a statement, one from Boston and one from Australia.
How the fuck is that relevant? How many people died last year from taking too much aspirin they bought at Walmart?
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#423Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey everybody, icelander hired someone to kill multiple people. Hey icelander, now you, too have allegedly hired someone to kill multiple people.
Do you have a journal proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have been written by icelancer that includes them discussing how they paid to have a person killed? And did you also confirm that the payment for that supposed hit was transferred? Because these facts were shown at Ross's trial. Its alleged because he hasn't yet been specifically convicted on these charges, which are still pending in Maryland.
Do you have a journal proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have been written by Ross Ulbricht that includes them discussing how they paid to have a person killed? Because a jury has yet to decide whether the government has such a thing, too.
My point is, we haven't seen the evidence, a jury hasn't decided about the evidence, why are we talking about this? We can't pretend that Ulbricht's sentence for drug trafficking was fair because of his charges for violent crimes, because the charges for violent crimes have yet to complete. This sentencing happened in a court of law, where speculation about the result of different court cases is as valuable as some dude on the internet saying icelander killed people.
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#424Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any credible studies to link? The LD50 was extensively document, your claim is essentially vodoo.
Yes, of course. I just thought that flashbacks and other LSD complications are common knowledge. Take a look at this Wikipedia section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Adv...
You're an idiot. Flashbacks are not a real thing. Pretty much every negative effect of LSD is exaggerated or based on biased reports by the government to justify making anything that gets you high illegal. An LSD 'flashback' is more like deja vu, like "Wow this is really similar to something I've experienced before", not like you just randomly go back into a full on trip. If you're schizophrenic you probably shouldn't take LSD, sure. But if you have heart palpitations you probably shouldn't drink Red Bull. People should be responsible for their own decisions, not you or the government or anyone else.
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#425I don't know enough about this story to have an overall opinion, but this particular exchange made me angry: > His lawyer, Joshua L. Dratel, in submissions to the judge, argued that the website’s “harm reduction” ethos made it safer than traditional drug dealing on the street. > But prosecutors, in their memo, argued that praising Silk Road for “harm reduction measures” was “akin to applauding a heroin dealer for han…
> When one side of the argument is based in real-world impacts, and the other side has nothing but an appeal to existing rules, it's a pretty good indication that the rules need changing. One side is based on a "claimed" real-world impact. Its somewhat plausible but ultimately isn't backed by real evidence.
Sure but if the argument is in the realm of real-world impact, at least then it can be debated and the evidence weighed.
Maybe this "harm reduction" argument here is full of it, I don't know. All I'm saying is: if one side uses as their only argument "because I said so," then there is no real debate.
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#426Earlier quoted context omitted.
He was also charged in a separate jurisdiction, yes, but murder-for-hire was actually a component of one of the charges he was accused of in this trial. Either way enough relatives of deceased drug abusers testified at sentencing, and enough heartless chat logs of DPR's were introduced as evidence, to rather eviscerate the idea that Silk Road was completely "victimless".
No it wasn't. Here are the charges that were involved in this trial. http://freeross.org/the-case-the-goal-and-why-this-matters-2...
Feel free to grep for 'murder-for-hire' in this document
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1391..., where the judge ruled on the admissability of evidence about Ulbricht's attempts to hire murderers to kill 6 people.
Or if you don't grep, you could just start from the beginning; the judge essentially leads off with the murder-for-hire subplot right from the beginning of her ruling.
As mentioned by dragonwriter, this murder-for-hire scheme was an overt act charged as part of Count One of the indictment (p5)
http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/usao-sdny/legacy/...
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#427I strongly believe that my son would be here today if Ross Ulbricht had not created Silk Road Wrong, you're son would be here if you were a better parent.
Right? Your fucking son made is own decision to try Heroin. Sorry he died, but don't go blaming the dealer for your sons actions.
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#428Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cars and guns also hurt people but pretty much anyone can sell those. I agree that drug sales should be regulated but that doesn't in any way make sentencing someone to life in prison for running a website any less fucked up.
> Cars and guns also hurt people but pretty much anyone can sell those When car or gun buying addiction becomes more then a negligible problem, you'll have a terrific point.
Well, gun violence is definitely a pretty big problem in the united states. More importantly, banning or restricting gun ownership is effective at reducing gun related injury and death. The same cannot be said for drug prohibition (see: American alcohol prohibition, Portugal's drug decriminalization).
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#429Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope. Entrapment requires the police to have caused someone to commit a crime they wouldn't have otherwise. A good explanation of what counts as entrapment: http://thecriminallawyer.tumblr.com/post/19810672629/12-i-wa...
I'm not sure I really follow because the comics didn't describe anything that presumably would be entrapment. Is anyone here a lawyer in this area of law? I don't really trust webcomics.... But let's talk about this alleged hitman situation. Didn't the police come up with the idea and create the situation where a third of a million dollars appeared to have been stolen and a volunteer appeared to defect with informati…
IANAL, but from reading lots of the law comic (which is by an actual lawyer), the basic answer is that the state has to have 'corrupted' them into being a criminal here.
The police are allowed to give you the idea (you are required to refuse), they're allowed to give you the means (they can sell you the gun/drugs/etc.), they're allowed to create opportunities (bait cars), they're even allowed to become a part of the conspiracy with you and to lie to you about it (undercover agents).
What they're not allowed to do is to force your hand or corrupt someone who wasn't committing crimes to start.
So it's not going to count if the only reason they would have otherwise refused to commit the crime was because they were dealing with the cops and it's not going to count if the reasons they decided to commit the crime stem from their own wrongdoing. If you want to protect yourself from someone blackmailing you over criminal acts you've done, you turn yourself into the police. You don't hire a hitman and add yet another crime to the list.
Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison
#430Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cars and guns also hurt people but pretty much anyone can sell those. I agree that drug sales should be regulated but that doesn't in any way make sentencing someone to life in prison for running a website any less fucked up.
> Cars and guns also hurt people but pretty much anyone can sell those When car or gun buying addiction becomes more then a negligible problem, you'll have a terrific point.
90+% of American households own cars. Approximately 30'000 die in car crashes every year. I'd say the US is addicted to cars.