I'm definitely more pro-government than most people on HN.
What happened to Aaron was a travesty. In fact, it's even more a travesty from my vantage point, because it strikes directly at the credibility of the criminal justice system.
The only reason the operators of a flophouse hotel that concealed meth labs and multiple retail heroin dealing operations could possibly appear sympathetic on HN is because the US Attorney's office in Boston poisoned their reputation by threatening Aaron Swartz with a multi-year sentence and 13 felony convictions.
[later]
I reject entirely the idea that the comment to which you're responding is "pro-government". My comment is anti-flophouse. That's not remotely the same thing.
You post is essentially rubber-stamping the government's civil forfeiture laws when it's against someone you (and the government) don't like, like this motel.
That's not justice, and frankly, no one should support the government's use of civil forfeiture, ever, for any reason, full stop.
Civil forfeiture is so abused by the government today as to be evil in and of itself. No "ends justifies the means" argument applies when it comes to civil forfeiture, in this case, or any other. It's that bad.
Of course, the government disagrees, as do you: that's what makes you "pro-government" in this case.
Ridiculous. You could use the exact same logic to call me "pro-government" in supporting the government for suing to shut down a factory that pours mercury into a river.
What the fuck does "pro-government" even mean? What an asinine line to argue. I'm anti-flophouse, like the government. I'm anti-military-occupation, unlike the government. I'm anti-copyright-infringement, like the government. I'm anti-patent-system, unlike the government. I'm anti-meth-lab, like the government. I'm anti-marijuana-prohibition, unlike the government.
Do you want me to go on?
Are you pro-abortion-clinic-bombings? You must be pro-government. Are you anti- workplace- race- discrimination? You must be pro-government. Are you uniformly against every intervention the government pursues? Is that the ideological line I to which I have to hew to meet your approval? I guess I'll have to do without that, then.
Man, you don't understand. They're like, "the establishment" man! You have to oppose everything they're in favor of. And be in favor of everything they oppose. Fight the power!
What would a cheap place do that would prevent such things? Strip search all their customers to make sure they did not have enough heroin to overdose on?
The hotel isn't spawning this sort of shit, it is just attracting it by virtue of being cheap enough for low-lifes to afford. The local authorities are the ones that failed, not the motel.
What happened to Aaron was a travesty. In fact, it's even more a travesty from my vantage point, because it strikes directly at the credibility of the criminal justice system.
The only reason the operators of a flophouse hotel that concealed meth labs and multiple retail heroin dealing operations could possibly appear sympathetic on HN is because the US Attorney's office in Boston poisoned their reputation by threatening Aaron Swartz with a multi-year sentence and 13 felony convictions.
[later]
I reject entirely the idea that the comment to which you're responding is "pro-government". My comment is anti-flophouse. That's not remotely the same thing.