The 19-year-old jailed for the crime of sarcasm • Hacker News Board

Re: The 19-year-old jailed for the crime of sarcasm

#91

Post by kipple » Fri, Jul 05, 2013, 8:25 PM UTC

floobynewb wrote: post #85

adventured wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of targets of blame these days... politicians, bankers, parents, teachers, you name it. At the core, I believe it's my fellow Americans that have become frightening. They represent the rotting culture that accommodates our increasingly violent, extralegal form of government, the one now almost entirely unchained from the Constitution. The sheer apathy; the willingness to hand over fundamental libertie…

"Every nation gets the government it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre. Thank you, this quote suddenly really clicked for me. I had interpreted it as an indictment of apathy. It's actually a statement of fact, the government refelects society.

And the society reflects the corporatocracy. Our culture and way of life have been deeply shaped by marketing. Producers producing too much are finding ways to make more consumers. So we're stuck in this endless cycle of consumerism that's _just_ comfortable enough we don't complain. Government does a lot, but fundamentally it's becoming a Punch & Judy show between Democrat and Republican extremes while the groups with money divide and conquer global resources.

Oh wait, shhh settle down and pass me that KFC bucket, my favorite TV show is about to start.

Re: The 19-year-old jailed for the crime of sarcasm

#92

Post by duncan_bayne » Sat, Jul 06, 2013, 4:40 AM UTC

brazzy wrote: post #79

beedogs wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As for that woman who turned him in to the police and effectively ruined his life, I'd say she deserves a nice, fat civil suit. Or at least to be doxed and harassed for a few weeks. Let's hope 4chan picks that ball up and runs with it. People need to stop being so fucking hair-trigger paranoid.

This makes you no better than her, not one hair.

Really? She'd deserve that sort of treatment; he didn't deserve the treatment he received.

Re: The 19-year-old jailed for the crime of sarcasm

#93

Post by gtirloni » Sat, Jul 06, 2013, 5:49 AM UTC

zaroth wrote: post #43

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would wish her a swift expulsion from office for gross incompetence, except that this type of brainless bureaucrat really does represent the people who elect them. We live in a post-literate, lawsuit driven society where such officials are simply following the path of least resistance. I hope the parents have some really good lawyers. This thing may have to go up the chain to their Senator and perhaps a federal cou…

He had a public defender, but recently got Donald Flanary to take the case pro bono. I don't know anything about Flanary, but reports indicate this is a positive development, and it seems he was able to get some traction. I think fundamentally the woman did nothing wrong, if it was truly a case of an unrelated person showing concern. If it turns out she had some more nefarious reason to throw Justin to the wolves (th…

The police and the DA are afraid of this kid being a real threat down the road. They imagine that if what he said really happens, they will lose their jobs and have some very bad publicity (because the US society expects that it can avoid all and every crime so it moves the machinery in that direction adding more stupid laws, more law enforcement, more spying, etc, etc, etc). So for the Police and DA it's much easier to throw this kid in the jail and, if it was a mistaken, then 1) they can say they were overprotectice and 99.999% of the population will thank them for it and 2) the fat paycheck for this kid will not come from their salary.

If the police officers and the DA to get booted from their jobs for this mistake, then some other public figure / wannabe politician will use the current society paranoia state to point at the elected officials and say they don't care about people's security and blablabla.. the masses let it all happen and the policitians need the masses.

We're in a sad state of affairs these days but I suppose it has always been like that since before humans even started to talk.