Hacker News Reader

Comment by kasey_junk | Hacker News Reader

All 177 people who were at that restaurant were charged with the same thing, even though there is no evidence that they were involved. Like literally the people hiding in the bathroom were charged the same as the people shooting out front.

I'm wondering what those folks did to deserve removal from society without question.

View on HN

There are laws that deal with gangs and organized crime. The Banditos and Cossacks are both very much gangs and very into organized crime. Being present at a gang shoot out while wearing gang colors is association. Is that fair? probably not, but that's what happened.

charged != convicted

Nope but in this case it does mean "spent lots (~a month) of time in jail and lost your job".

The justice system can also pull innocent away people from their jobs and families by calling them out to jury duty.

But the judge set bail at 1 Million dollars for all 177 of them

Justice of the peace, not judge. The person who set the initial bond apparently had no sanctioned education in the law. I have trouble believing that even the most devious and corrupt J.D. in existence could possibly create a legal theory that would even begin to square what that magistrate did with the laws of Waco, Texas, and the U.S.

The guy probably did it as a pseudo-legal way of punishing folks for being in a MC, without going through the hassle of due process. As they say, you can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride. In his mind, the bikers were all guilty of "contempt of Waco".

A Texas JP is allowed to institute penalties for contempt of a maximum of $100 and 3 days in jail. They can set bail, but their authority to try cases is limited to misdemeanor offenses punishable only by fines, and civil disputes less than $10k. Given the situation, the JP should have called upon a real judge--or actually several real judges--to process the 177 in custody.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com