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Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

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Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#411

Post by ecocentrik »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #301

So does this mean the war on drugs is finally over and we're going to stop mass incarceration for non-violent drug offenses? If so, that _would_ be good news.

He also just classified drug cartels as terrorist organizations so drug dealers are now technically facilitating terrorism. Apart from liberating this white collar drug dealer, all of his other actions have escalated the war on drugs. While he was signing these orders, he claimed that drug cartels were responsible for up to 300,000 American deaths annually (a completely fabricated number.)

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#412

Post by psygn89 »

Cub3 wrote: post #373
loeg wrote: post #129

Any non-twitter reporting on this? Edit: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-pardons-silk-road-fou...

It seems a lot of reddit communities are starting to block xitter as it's painful to use now without an account. Should HN do the same?

No. Let us decide how we want to handle it. Most of us could handle it ourselves through scripts and extensions if it really bothered us anyway.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#413

Post by chrisco255 »

bko wrote: post #230
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…

Ross Ulbricht was not sentenced for murder-for-hire charges. Those allegations were used to deny him bail and influenced public perception, they were not part of his formal conviction or sentencing. He was convicted on non-violent charges related to operating the Silk Road website, including drug distribution, computer hacking, and money laundering. Does this change your opinion of sentencing being well-deserved?

Does anyone know if Ross had a jury trial and if not, why not?

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#414

Post by Whatarethese »

loeg wrote: post #371
zanek wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading the comments on this thread. Multiple teenagers (one in Australia) died from the drugs distributed on Silk Road. Ross was ok with selling grenades, body parts, etc on there. But everyone is saying he served his time ???

People regularly die from drinking alcohol. Should liquor store owners be doing life in prison? (And why are Australians special?)

Charles Manson never murdered anyone. Should his sentence been commuted?

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#415

Post by Dylan16807 »

wolfgang42 wrote: post #307
remram wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When the FBI agents stopped to have a drink I thought You mean "when I read the part where the FBI agents stopped to have a drink I thought"? This part makes your comment super confusing. Where you there then or later?

I thought that starting my story in media res would make for a better dramatic effect, but it seems I overestimated my audience and went a little too heavy on the narrative ellipsis.

I think you could have told it as experiencing the events without making your post confusing, but you'd have to redo your first paragraph. Your first paragraph is external, meta, and places his arrest in your past, which throws off the effect when that suddenly changes in the next sentence. It's not the audience's fault that that is hard to parse.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#416

Post by jMyles »

jsphweid wrote: post #104

From wikipedia: > "full and unconditional pardon for any crimes related to drugs". Does "any crimes related to drugs" include the murder for hire allegations? Does this mean new charges related to that could be brought against him?

Given the farcical nature of those allegations and all that we now know, including that others with access to the Dread Pirate Roberts account assert that the DEA agent making the allegations (who is himself now in prison for attempting to steal some of the silk road bitcoin) had access as well, it will be wonderful if DoJ attempts to bring charges, just to further clear Ross' name.

There are not a shred of evidence that Ross ever had the slightest thing to do with those conversations, and it seems much more likely that the DEA used the DPR account to frame him.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#417

Post by bogota »

zanek wrote: post #327
steve_avery wrote: post #55

Well, I think that justice has been served. The feds' prosecution of Ulbricht was the epitome of throwing the book at someone to make an example, when the government's case was pretty flawed, in my opinion. 10 years is enough time to pay the debt of running the silk road. I am glad that Ulbricht has been pardoned and I feel like a small iota of justice has been returned to the world with this action.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading the comments on this thread. Multiple teenagers (one in Australia) died from the drugs distributed on Silk Road. Ross was ok with selling grenades, body parts, etc on there. But everyone is saying he served his time ???

Maybe spend a little less time reading propaganda.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#418

Post by kurisufag »

wolfgang42 wrote: post #307
remram wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When the FBI agents stopped to have a drink I thought You mean "when I read the part where the FBI agents stopped to have a drink I thought"? This part makes your comment super confusing. Where you there then or later?

I thought that starting my story in media res would make for a better dramatic effect, but it seems I overestimated my audience and went a little too heavy on the narrative ellipsis.

I enjoyed it, personally.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#419

Post by jMyles »

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…

> I think it's clear he did many things in the same vein

It is clear as mud. We now know:

* At least four other people had access to the DPR account, by design.

* One of those people (the person whose murder was supposedly ordered, who has vehemently defended Ross!) asserts that he knew that Nob (who we know who was a DEA agent) was one of those four people.

* Nob is a serial liar, and is now in prison for having stole some of the bitcoin from this operation.

...what about that make clear that Ross was within a mile of this supposed 'murder for hire' business?

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#420

Post by LAC-Tech »

cogman10 wrote: post #351
nostromo wrote: post #299

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 reall…

I wish instead of criminalizing addiction we'd fund harm reduction centers and rehabilitation services. I would much rather the police be focused on stopping violent crime rather than these victimless crimes. Legitimizing drugs/prostitution makes is easier to regulate and ultimately make safer. Shoving this stuff into a black/gray market is what ultimately creates violent crime.

Those won't stop the problem at the root, right?

The inflow/manufacture of narcotics won't be affected at all. You'll still have a constant new influx of junkies, and it you'll essentially by funding this widescale and expensive solution forever.

Much better to simple make drug trafficing and manufacture a capital offense. It's been extremely effective in a lot of jurisdictions. Even if you're squeamish about the death penalty, a back of the envelope calculations will tell you you're saving a lot more lives than you spend due to decreased overdoses, drug wars etc,

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