Prosecutor Stephen Heymann told MIT that Aaron Swartz was like a rapist who blames his victim

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I know a whole bunch of people, including a couple of toddlers, who would be far better in that role. Why is he still employed?

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Definitely over the top and gratuitiously insensitive.

If the comparison had been to a thief who blames the victim for leaving their door unlocked, it would have been rude but defensible.

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I think the only way he could have made that analogy worse is if he tried to add in comparisons to Nazi treatment of jews, in.

This isn’t THE worst analogy you could make, but it’s definitely up in the top ten.

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Welp, we can add another thing to the list of things that are definitely nothing like rape at all and fuck you for saying they are:

Downloading academic journal articles.

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… if the thief is walking in to a store where everything is free and you can take as much as you want but only up to an arbitrary and unspecified limit.

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What a complete and utter tosser.

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And what Stephen Heymann did to Aaron Swartz, what would you call that?

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The fact that these prosecutors are still prosecuting people is a disservice and a danger to the American people.

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“it is disturbing to him “whenever a defendant ‘systematically revictimized’ the victim, and that was what Swartz was doing by dragging MIT through hearings and a trial…”

Basic Constitutional law fail?

“in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right…to be confronted with the witnesses against him.”

Or how about from the mouth of the Supreme Court: “Dispensing with confrontation because testimony is obviously reliable is akin to dispensing with jury trial because the defendant is obviously guilty.”

It is disturbing to me when government attorneys pretend like due process is just a barrier to a persecution…er, prosecution.

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His analogy is like some kind of terrible violence. I can’t put my finger on it exactly. Imagine the worst thing only worse than that now done to the credibility of his office. That bad!

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He’s more like a guy who instead of taking one complimentary mint from a bowl took several large handfuls and stuffed them in his pockets. Not really exemplary behavior, and he knew it (he hid his systems and avoided detection), but certainly not felony material. In the end what he took had even less value than a handful of mints since he was just making copies.

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Exactly! In that role he hurts people.

I have nothing personal against Mr. Heymann, and maybe he’s an okay guy in most respects and was just caught up in the moment. But even so he needs to be doing something else, art, genetic engineering, entertainment, breeding dogs, whatever. I wish him a good and fruitful life, but not at the expense of others.

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I know a whole bunch of people, including a couple of toddlers, who would be far better in that role.

I sure hope he is enjoying his “juice”:

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/federal-prosecutor-stephen-heymann-wanted-juicy-case-publicity-and-found-it-aaron

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Except the mints are self-replicating and the act of taking one creates an exact duplicate mint in its place.

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The analogy with all its fault gets better if we change it to:

Prosecutor Stephen Heymann was like a rapist who blames his victim

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Exactly! The real criminals are the ones who made not-stealing a crime!

Which is why I said, “In the end what he took had even less value than a handful of mints since he was just making copies.”

Ah yes, Stephen Heymann, a name that I hope will be held in esteem equal to say… Joseph McCarthy before the end of my lifetime.

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That’ll teach me not to skim comments and reply in righteous indignation.