Anyone else feel sad that terrible choices made as a minor are having such a devastating impact on an otherwise upstanding human being?
Why is this concerning? Do you expect people to post their criminal histories on their LinkedIn? Even if said crimes occurred as a minor and the person has spent their whole adult lives as a law abiding person?
I don't find it curious at all as to why he didn't go around announcing his past criminal connections: because it would hamper his career prospects, and because he doesn't want people to portray the actions he took as a homeless teenager as reflecting his character as an adult. This whole thread demonstrates why not highlighting his past history was a wise decision.
Yes, I absolutely expect someone entrusted with enormous responsibility in the criminal justice realm to be upfront and open about their past and be held to a far higher, far more stringent standard. And it doesn't help that his company hasn't been the most morally upright company in recent times either[1].
[0]https://onezero.medium.com/ceo-of-surveillance-firm-banjo-on...
[1]https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3bgky/banjo-ai-used-secr...
He refers to associating with these groups in the past tense, in his 1992 testimony (at which time he was 19). As I stated, the evidence corroborates Patton's explanations that these activities were limited to his teenage years.
> “We all have a personal story,” Patton told an audience at the Domopalooza tech conference in Salt Lake City in March 2019. “It’s probably what drives you every day to do what you do. Drives your family life, your work life. It’s no different from me.”
> “I came out of an abusive household,” he told the crowd. “When I was a young kid. And I left. And I was a homeless kid living on the streets, under the underpass of the freeway in Los Angeles, eating out of the dumpster. Never finished high school, belonged to street gangs,” he said. “Was up to no good.”
I guess I still feel sad that someone that otherwise could be a productive member of society was so horribly misled as a child.
Can you link to a source? I haven't heard this and it substantially changes things. I want to make sure it's true before speaking it but I can't find it.
"But Patton does not mention that, by his own testimony, he continued to socialize with white supremacists while in the Navy. Patton told prosecutors that he gathered with skinheads while stationed in Virginia for training. “I had known some of the Skinheads there from prior rallies in Tennessee and because of not knowing anybody there, I ended up meeting with them and hung out with them for some time,” he said.
Patton received a subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury regarding the West End Synagogue shooting while he was still in the Navy, ultimately giving his first testimony in the case in September 1991.
In addition to the shooting, Patton was implicated in at least one other hate crime that occurred during his time in Tennessee. According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by a Nashville-area FBI agent in support of a search for Patton and his residences, Patton allegedly defaced the Greater Bethel AME Church in Nashville, an African American Methodist denomination. By his own grand jury testimony, Patton admitted to spray-painting buildings in the area with “KKK” and swastikas. The affidavit also alleges that Patton also impersonated an FBI agent to uncover spies among the skinheads he associated with."
Doesn't look like "upstanding" is the most accurate word to describe him today if some of those allegations from the vice article are true...
Not sure which is worse