Anyone else thing it's dodgy as hell that he offed himself in custody? Surely with all the assets he had, he'd have a pretty comfy lifestyle behind bars.
AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
111–120 of 134 posts
Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
i don't see the point in respecting a law that i don't agree with
Then work to get it repealed. But I can't have any sympathy for you if you decide to start up a drug selling store, and then get busted for doing something you knew at the time was illegal.
i didn't ask for sympathy either. i know i'm breaking the law, i'm explaining why
Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
#113Or, you know, just don't do illicit things.
You've continued to post unsubstantive comments and to use HN primarily for political and ideological battle. If you don't fix this, we're going to have to ban you again, so would you please fix this?
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14815722 and marked it off-topic.
Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Japan, where illegal drugs and their halo of crime are not really relevant in any way to normal daily life. I'm not a crusader against recreational drug use, but I reject the hypothesis that legalization is the only path to eliminating the criminal drug industry. Here, stiff penalties and social disapproval, combined with a unique cooperation between (well) organized crime and capable, uncorrupted authoriti…
Bit of a laugh about "uncorrupted authorities" (the Japanese political system is many things but hardly uncorrupted), but the uniqueness of Japanese crime structure is real. However, that structure relies on another addiction that is basically as powerful as drugs, completely legal, and relatively well-accepted by society: pachinko. To me, it looks like any society with some form of inequality will inevitably need a…
Well, yes I have to agree about pachinko. I was thinking more in terms of law enforcement and organized crime having a common cause in keeping foreign criminal syndicates out of Japan. Say what you will about the integrity of that arrangement, but I will never once walk the streets of Kyoto or Nagoya or just about anywhere else in Japan and worry about being caught in some crossfire, being mugged by a junkie, or being shaken down by a cop. On the other hand, I know that legitimate businesses pay protection money and I can see a yakuza HQ office from my penthouse apartment. All of that is a far cry from the insane, desperate chaos that I left behind on the streets of America.
Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
sure, but what is actually wrong with drug use? moral outrage? the sign of a decaying society? untold secondary consequences? the problem is, people use drugs a lot. the war on drugs hasn't changed that in the least. we may have social issues, but as a "relatively upstanding and taxpaying citizen" who also happens to enjoy certain drugs on occasion, i ask. how exactly is my drug use impairing my ability to function i…
"sure, but what is actually wrong with drug use?" I don't care; that's not what's being debated here. The fact of the matter is, it's illegal, and anyone who sets up a drug marketplace today knows that. They set it up with full knowledge that they are breaking the law. If they wish to campaign to have drug laws reworked, I'm all for that and wish them the best of luck. But they're not doing that; they're setting up a…
Some laws are dumb, and civil diosobedience in the form of a mass breaking of those laws is often the best way.
> Getting high is not any kind of civil rights struggle.
You're right, it's not. At it's core it is a matter of pure, absolute personal choice and that is far more fucking important.
If I want to consume a naturally occuring substance recreationally and I'm not harming anyone, then anyone who disapproves can try to stop me clack clack.
Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Japan, where illegal drugs and their halo of crime are not really relevant in any way to normal daily life. I'm not a crusader against recreational drug use, but I reject the hypothesis that legalization is the only path to eliminating the criminal drug industry. Here, stiff penalties and social disapproval, combined with a unique cooperation between (well) organized crime and capable, uncorrupted authoriti…
I never said it's the only path, just the most logical, easiest and obvious path. People are always going to do drugs. If you don't want them to do illegal drugs, then make them legal. It will eliminate illegal drug use overnight literally. Then people can get the help they need and be treated as a disease if they are addicted. Stealing etc and all the other crime that comes from addicts are still crimes. You're kidd…
You are in a fantasy world if you think Japanese people like "a good smoke". You obviously know absolutely nothing about real life in Japan.
Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bit of a laugh about "uncorrupted authorities" (the Japanese political system is many things but hardly uncorrupted), but the uniqueness of Japanese crime structure is real. However, that structure relies on another addiction that is basically as powerful as drugs, completely legal, and relatively well-accepted by society: pachinko. To me, it looks like any society with some form of inequality will inevitably need a…
Well, yes I have to agree about pachinko. I was thinking more in terms of law enforcement and organized crime having a common cause in keeping foreign criminal syndicates out of Japan. Say what you will about the integrity of that arrangement, but I will never once walk the streets of Kyoto or Nagoya or just about anywhere else in Japan and worry about being caught in some crossfire, being mugged by a junkie, or bein…
>. I was thinking more in terms of law enforcement and organized crime having a common cause in keeping foreign criminal syndicates out of Japan.
But let's be honest, the yakuza want to keep foreign criminal syndicates out of Japan because they want a monopoly on organized crime in Japan, not because they want to keep the Japanese people safe from foreign criminals. The yakuza deal in extortion, blackmail, drugs, guns, prostitution, human trafficking, all of the same criminal activity any other syndicate does. They may not be as openly violent as other mafias, but they're not nice people.
Claiming they have a "common cause" with the police is to assume that the police have no issue with crime in Japan so long as it's Japanese committing those crimes, which I think cannot be true, and would be a sign of dereliction of duty if it were. From what I understand the yakuza are losing power in Japan because the police have been effectively cracking down on them... they're not comrades in arms.
Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
#118Or, you know, just don't do illicit things.
You've continued to post unsubstantive comments and to use HN primarily for political and ideological battle. If you don't fix this, we're going to have to ban you again, so would you please fix this? We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14815722 and marked it off-topic.
I don't see how this is not unsubstantive. The story is about someone arrested for running an illegal drug market. My suggestion was to just not do that.
Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, yes I have to agree about pachinko. I was thinking more in terms of law enforcement and organized crime having a common cause in keeping foreign criminal syndicates out of Japan. Say what you will about the integrity of that arrangement, but I will never once walk the streets of Kyoto or Nagoya or just about anywhere else in Japan and worry about being caught in some crossfire, being mugged by a junkie, or bein…
>. I was thinking more in terms of law enforcement and organized crime having a common cause in keeping foreign criminal syndicates out of Japan. But let's be honest, the yakuza want to keep foreign criminal syndicates out of Japan because they want a monopoly on organized crime in Japan, not because they want to keep the Japanese people safe from foreign criminals. The yakuza deal in extortion, blackmail, drugs, gun…
Japan's organized crime is still the biggest and best organized in the world.
They very clearly play a role in keeping petty criminals from China, Korea, and South Asia off the streets of Japan, and it's no secret that the keisatsukan will turn a blind eye when the public interest is served. It's hard to overstate the tranquility of Japan in terms of crime. Yes, there is a rather open underworld of prostitution and that presumably includes human trafficking. But I've met gaijin girls in my language classes here who work as hostesses, and they clearly felt like they escaped from places like Indonesia and Philippines, and even in the seedy underworld here they had more opportunities than where they came from. (Anecdotal to be sure, but also first-hand.)
Also, I know restauranteurs who happily pay protection money and feel like it's a valuable service for them. Go figure.
The truly dirty business of Yakuza is moving heroin abroad--especially into the US--and that just isn't tolerated on the home front.
Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
"sure, but what is actually wrong with drug use?" I don't care; that's not what's being debated here. The fact of the matter is, it's illegal, and anyone who sets up a drug marketplace today knows that. They set it up with full knowledge that they are breaking the law. If they wish to campaign to have drug laws reworked, I'm all for that and wish them the best of luck. But they're not doing that; they're setting up a…
Slaving used to be legal, and helping them escape was illegal. Anyone who helps slaves escape set it up with the full knowledge they are breaking the law.
This is not a valid rebuttal. Slavery and selling drugs are nowhere near the same thing, and by equating the two, you do a massive disrespect to those who fought for that. Slavery is a civil rights issue; selling drugs is not.