Cybersecurity Czar? After all, she knows all about the cyber…
2 Likes
She was completely wrong and she was largely responsible for his death but one way we’ve grow the last 30 or so years is to understand that peoples psychological make up is not some crude cause and effect. Cory (one of my hero’s) not including a couple of qualifying words when writing about suicide is what I’m talking about. “A major factor” would have made the difference. I’ll stand by that but my mistake was while I was thinking of the millions who deal with this stuff I should have let it pass knowing he was talking about someone he cared deeply about.
4 Likes
Welcome aboard!
(Not that English as a first language is a requirement to be welcome, many great contributors here count English as their second, third, fourth or morth language.)
You’ll find that astroturfers and bots don’t last terribly long, but people able to carry an intelligent conversation (or just be funny, here’s looking @ModusOperandi) tend to stick around.
6 Likes
I wonder if there is a guide to bbs for readers thinking they’d like to create a new bbs account and post on a contentious topic.
If I were writing one, I’d probably include this:
“Posting from a new account on a contentious or controversial topic. If you’ve been a long-time reader of BB, consider making your bbs account early, and using to to post likes, supportive comments or funny gifs for a few months before diving in on such topics. It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.”
10 Likes
“The slow blade penetrates the shield”
But seriously, what happened to Aaron Schwarz was a travesty. It should have been handled without the disproportionate threat of 30 years in prison. The world lost a talented young man for no good reason.
14 Likes
Thank you. I meant to also say this. And excellent reference to my point!
5 Likes
Thank you both - that was exactly the point of the article.
2 Likes
You can expect not one moment of any real emotion except one of annoyance for being exposed for who she really was. Not to worry, whilst her absence of conscience will not bother her in the least, everyone can work to keep the memory of who she really is alive for centuries, a fowl stench to haunt her family generation after generation.
Making sure those in positions of responsibility can not hide from their failures, is a way to remind the rest of the consequences of their abuses.
A digital hall of shame would likely be an appropriate place for the likes of her.
4 Likes
You know, if banks and their executives were prosecuted under the the same “every file is a separate crime” idea, then for every fraudulently-signed mortgage, they’d be in prison … a very long time.
15 Likes
If I happened upon Ortiz trapped in a burning building, I’d sip a cocktail while watching her burn to death.
1 Like
I would recommend getting yourself out of that building. Your drink would get warm.
6 Likes
No, Carmen Ortiz is not retiring. She is a federal political appointee who has submitted her resignation as is pro forma with a change in administration.
Sure, we’re glad to see her go, but she’ll pop up elsewhere, just wait and see.
Anyway, as usual there is nuance to everything. What she did to Aaron Swartz was horrible and unforgivable, and frankly she should have resigned when he committed suicide. But she did oversee some significant prosecutions of political corruption in Massachusetts that the state prosecutors willfully ignored.
Aaron’s situation was tragic and terrible, something we should never forget, and which should always remind us to keep fighting against prosecutorial overreach. I don’t have high hopes for her replacement, that’s for sure…
5 Likes
without defending her for what she has done, I can’t agree that she comes from particularly privileged circumstances.
1 Like
saying this, in this context, is victim blaming. Are you not actually saying he should have been tough enough to stand the power of a US Attorney abusing her power? Like you would be?
you don’t seem above it, and I think you’re projecting.
Thanks for the casual judgements of the dead
4 Likes
It seems that Swartz wasn’t the only victim to lose his life as a consequence of Ortiz’s prosecutions:
3 Likes
Paging Neville Chamberlain
1 Like
Well, I am not trying to defend her, but there was (and continues to be) so much venom for the woman in this thread, I was thinking that it needed a little empathy injection.
I don’t know much about her record, but I tried to find some interview where she said she had regret for what happened, but I couldn’t find one. Just one that said they didn’t realize how fragile Swartz was. But since she’s a lawyer, I imagine she figures any public statement more than that might be an admission of guilt.
1 Like
Her career has been marked by prosecutorial overreach. The Swartz case is par for the course for her. Also, as @Enkita pointed out, she cares more about her own celebrity than justice.
2 Likes
I was more thinking of her position as a prosecutor inherently affording privilege which she, seemingly, abused. Where she was at, rather than from.
1 Like
Fair enough. She definitely abused her authority.
1 Like
