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Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

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Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#291

Post by inopinatus »

coliveira wrote: post #287
wolfgang42 wrote: post #173

Tangentially related: I had the disconcerting experience of reading a Wired article about his arrest[1] while unknowingly sitting about six feet from the spot where he was apprehended. When I read that the FBI agents had stopped at Bello Coffee while preparing their stakeout, I thought, huh, interesting coincidence, I just had a coffee there. Then Ulbricht walked into the public library and sat down at the table dire…

The responses to this comment show that people's ability to read and comprehend text has decreased dramatically in the last few years. Frightening...

I was afraid of this too but it turned out to be presbyopia

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#292

Post by MPSFounder »

These discussions are very interesting. So many red flags from Trump (this pardon, ending birthright citizenship...), and people try to justify these things. America is unfortunately heading for a very dark time. Politics aside, I am rather uncomfortable with the power the president possesses. We were always mindful that there are systems of checks and balances. However, given the current court overturned a precedent (Roe), I am unsure what the future holds. This pardon makes me very uneasy.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#293

Post by dang »

kevinsync wrote: post #54

I have nothing in particular to say about the dead comments in this very young thread, but they're sort-of-interesting comments to have been killed so quickly! Is it due to HN policy? I guess they're subjective and ideological, and prone to starting arguments rather than debates. Maybe "Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. That tramples curiosity." or "Please don't pick the most provocati…

Jtsummers is correct.

Just to add one point, flagged comments are mostly flagged by users (as opposed to mods). We can only guess why users flag things, but from looking at a sample in the current thread it's probably because they're mostly flamewar-style comments and/or political-battle style comments (or both). Those aren't good for HN because what we want here is curious, thoughtful conversation.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#294

Post by sidibe »

The sympathy for this guy from so many of you makes me sad.

The messages show he wanted and thought he was getting people murdered. But that's perfectly OK because it was actually the evil FBI he was talking to!

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#295

Post by 77pt77 »

rappatic wrote: post #164

I think his original sentence was absolutely deserved—even though the charge of hiring a contract killer to assassinate his business competition may have been dropped, I think it's clear he did many things in the same vein. Even if you support his original pursuit of a free and open online marketplace, I think most people would agree he took it a bridge too far in the end. That said, I do think he absolutely deserved…

> has done great work during his time in prison

What work?

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#296

Post by dang »

lupusreal wrote: post #60

This conversation is presently flagged. Why? When Ross was sentenced HN had a discussion about it with more than 600 comments. His conviction has been discussed numerous additional times in other threads throughout the years. His pardon is plainly on-topic for HN, and this discussion is a necessary followup to those previous discussions.

Of course it's on topic. Why did users flag it? Probably some combination of not liking the event itself and fatigue with political stories. But that's just a guess.

In any case, we turned the flags off when we saw it.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#297

Post by sophacles »

blast wrote: post #275
sidcool wrote: post #270

I'm indifferent to him being pardoned. But people saying he didn't deserve any punishment seems weird to me.

To me too. But life without parole seemed weird as well.

That's why commutation is a thing. The courts have ruled this as within the pardon powers. His sentence could be changed to reflect something much more aligned with other convictions for the same crimes.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#299

Post by nostromo »

I think the attacks on some of these black and gray markets has increased violent crime in the real world. I wish the federal government would stop shutting them down and instead use them as tools to build cases against people breaking the law.

For example, for a while most prostitution and sex work seemed to be online, on places like Craigslist right next to ads for used furniture and jobs. And it seemed to be really effective in getting prostitutes off the streets.

Now that those markets were shut down, I'm seeing here in Seattle we're having pimp shootouts on Aurora and the prostitutes are more brazen than ever. Going after Craigslist has had a negative effect on our cities and has increased crime, and I suspect going after SilkRoad has had a similar impact.

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