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Comment by Red_Tarsius | Hacker News Reader

> Men who were injured while at CAAIR rarely receive long-term help for their injuries. That’s because the program requires all men to sign a form stating that they are clients, not employees, and therefore have no right to workers’ comp. Reveal found that when men got hurt, CAAIR filed workers’ comp claims and kept the payouts. Injured men and their families never saw a dime.

I read this reportage years ago and it made my blood boil. For some reason, of all stories of everyday injustice, this stuck with me. My mind often goes back to this case like some sort of mental titinnus. These judges and factory owners have NAMES and ADDRESSES. They need to be REMINDED that all of this can be taken away.

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I'm with you 100%. That said when I read something like this and get angry about it I really don't know what I can practically do about it. I have disposable income but I'm not the type to feel righteous and self-assured because I dropped a couple hundred dollar donation on a criminal justice reform NGO.

As far as actions to take, what immediately comes to my mind are ideas that involve becoming a federal felon for violation of the computer fraud and abuse act.

Does anyone have any concrete ideas on what to do as a technical, moderately affluent person when you come across such insidious bullshit?

Start your own little rehab on your property?

The other day I found an interesting webpage linked from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28232716 that outlines the practical accessibility of hiring researchers for things. There are a lot of possibilities here: a domain expert could autonomously take the subject further, or they could provide targeted insights that factor in your strengths/areas of expertise, or they could even work with the original reporters (who likely have private access to a tonne more info, and might be willing to follow up with it further if independent funding is possible, etc).

(The thread the above comment is from was also very interesting too.)

> CAAIR filed workers’ comp claims and kept the payouts

How is this not just outright fraud? The state may turn a blind eye towards horrific abuses of prisoners, but they're not going to be so sanguine about theft of their money. Even worse this creates an incentive to make the workplace dangerous, since each injury is more cash in the administrator's pockets.

Forming a corporation largrly grants effective immunity from punishment for crime.

And then the engine of government will pounce on you with a vengeance for daring to "threaten" them even if you do so much as offer a angry letter.

The complete lack of personal accountability was not always a thing. Tales abound in colonial America about officials getting tarred and feathered for acting in nakedly corrupt ways. But the global village means you dont even care what happens to your neighbor anymore as they are too far and distant from you despite geographic proximity.

> These judges and factory owners have NAMES and ADDRESSES. They need to be REMINDED that all of this can be taken away.

We don't dox.

They were in the article...

It's public information and I don't see any doxing done.

You sound kind of reminiscent of these judge's use of the 13th amendment - slavery isn't illegal for prisoners, so let's enslave em!

Here's one for you: We don't make absolute decrees.

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