Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

motherboard.vice.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 167 posts

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#61

Post by emodendroket »

jessaustin wrote: post #51
emodendroket wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entrapment is real, sure, but, come on. It's not as though the FBI kidnapped his family and said they'd kill them unless he ordered a hitman.

Sure, we could draw the line at allowing law enforcement to kidnap a suspect's family, but should we? To the contrary, I think we've given our employees in law enforcement entirely too much leeway already.

Not necessarily, but when you have a guy who's hiring fake hitmen to punish sellers trying to rip off buyers it's hard to argue that he never would have considered a hitman if not for law enforcement intervention.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#62

Post by simplicio »

arca_vorago wrote: post #43

The main thing I would like to know is why did he hire the lawyer he did? His defense basically sold him up the river, as can be seen from the scathing comments from the judge. Is it still a fair trial if your lawyer is incompetent?

It's possible to get a re-trial on the grounds of incompetent defence, but the bar is really high. And since Ulbricht is still using the same lawyer for his appeals, it doesn't look like he's trying that route.

His defense did seem pretty poor, but given the amount of evidence against him, its not really clear what a "good defense" would've looked like.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#63

Post by andrewpi »

dublinben wrote: post #48
arca_vorago wrote: post #43

The main thing I would like to know is why did he hire the lawyer he did? His defense basically sold him up the river, as can be seen from the scathing comments from the judge. Is it still a fair trial if your lawyer is incompetent?

They were probably angling for the conviction to be overturned on appeal. There was almost no chance of getting a "not guilty" verdict in this situation.

Ineffective assistance of counsel is a very difficult appeal to win.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#64

Post by Retra »

[deleted] wrote: post #55
Retra wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"[Godwin's law is] an endlessly tiresome way of feigning moral indignation" -- Kevin Drum

[deleted]

How could you reasonably expect me to anticipate your irritability? You've irritated me by failing to see obvious moral indignation, but I wouldn't bother to complain about it. (I'll complain about pettiness, though.)

As it turns out, the person I quoted said exactly what I wanted to say. It doesn't need elaboration.

>It's a complaint at people being lazy in making arguments.

Godwin's law is a very lazy way to make that argument, I would expect.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#65

Post by fistofjohnwayne »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #24
amyjess wrote: post #3

So, I went to college with Ross. He was a year ahead of me. I didn't know him personally, but several of my friends did. I had a few friends in college (some of whom I still talk to) who were good friends with him. When he got arrested, I looked up his Facebook page, and I found we have 5 mutual friends listed (and I know a couple of others who knew him but didn't have him on FB). Also, when he was arrested, my then-…

I knew them vaguely as well, sharing some friends. (I'd wager we've probably met in real life at UTD a few times.) Was Richard the guy who went as a flasher at a Halloween party? Because every time I read about him testifying in court, I'm imagining him doing so in that costume, which was ... graphic.

UTD forever.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#66

Post by q7 »

paulhauggis wrote: post #8
q7 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh c'mon, he ordered a hitman inside a play the FBI fully staged for him. There was never any harm done to anybody. Pure entrapment. Create a fake simulated decision dilemma he never had to decide in real life, put a lot of emotional pressure on him, and then when he made a bad decision inside this simulation that harmed nobody, try to condemn him for it. He hasn't lost my goodwill yet.

I disagree. A person that doesn't want to harm anyone wouldn't hire (or attempt to hire) a hitman. If the agent would have been a hitman, someone might be dead. "he never had to decide in real life" The reason he got in trouble was because he did decide it in real life. It's not like he put a hit out on a World of Warcraft character. "put a lot of emotional pressure on him" Emotional pressure? really? That's an elega…

The way I read about it, the FBI arrested one of this employees and made it appear as if that employee took all of his money and did not talk to Ulbricht anymore. Then the FBI created another persona that did talk to him, and waited until his hitman order. It was all part of an elaborate play.

"It's only because you support the legalization of drugs"

Oh please. Ad hominem much?

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#67

Post by bduerst »

bsbechtel wrote: post #25
api wrote: post #21

"I felt relieved: gone was the posturing so obvious in the previous candidates. They worked in advertising, at startups—Twitter employees who talked about how much money they made and the exotic locales where they took their vacations. Ross was a techie, but he didn't act like one. He seemed eloquent, optimistic, down-to-earth. He seemed trustworthy." As an aside, that's a sad little bit of commentary on the tech sce…

Sounds like what I've heard about 1999. Sign of a bubble?

Someone else mentioned it, but you have to stand out when applying for a room in SF. Fairly-priced rooms (~$1200/mo) will go in less than 36 hours of posting.

I know several people who have "Renter's" resumes, where they try to sell themselves as awesome people to live with. My guess is he is remembering them only because of the renter market effects.

If anything, it's a sign of a property bubble in SF.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#68

Post by marktangotango »

akashya wrote: post #28
bsbechtel wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like what I've heard about 1999. Sign of a bubble?

Definitely a sign of a bubble. Especially when reality is extremely close to the feelings expressed in that statement.

Nice observation guys, one I've wondered about myself. And totally off topic to the thread. Question is: how to prepare for the burst? I tend to think the current bubble is related to Fed policy, so when the money supply tights up, so will salaries. Just my two cents here.

Edit: Yay! down votes!

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#69

Post by Retra »

msandford wrote: post #34
api wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the possibility of entrapment certainly adds a bit of grey, I know that I would never consent even under pressure to "ordering a hitman" under anything but the most extraordinary self-defense circumstances. I would never do that just because I didn't like someone or had some kind of disagreement, or even if that person was doing something bad (but not physically threatening) to me. If I found myself in such a c…

Yeah, that's kind-of the point though. The government guy could have said "Hey look I think this guy is going to go to the feds and we're all going to go to jail! Give me the money and I'll take care of this problem. If you don't, I'm going to come after you because I'm not going to go to jail for this." At that point, a person might not feel that they have any choice. And the government gets to claim that "he ordere…

That's a terrible argument. Imagine you just made that threat to me. I will say "No. And if you come after me, I will just turn you in to the feds." And now you're almost assuredly going to jail, which is what you were trying to avoid in the first place. This is a quick way to stick yourself in an impossible-to-win situation and violate everyone's trust.

Anyway, the 'government guy' happened to keep records of what was said, so I don't see why you'd be tied up on such a hypothetical. And Ulbricht could have argued entrapment in court, if that was contested dialog.

Re: My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord

#70

Post by pavel_lishin »

fistofjohnwayne wrote: post #65
pavel_lishin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew them vaguely as well, sharing some friends. (I'd wager we've probably met in real life at UTD a few times.) Was Richard the guy who went as a flasher at a Halloween party? Because every time I read about him testifying in court, I'm imagining him doing so in that costume, which was ... graphic.

UTD forever.

Well, I mean, if you want to, I guess. I went ahead and graduated.
Post reply on HN