No, this is bullshit. He committed several serious crimes and is now paying the price for that.
Yes, reform the legal system sensibly. No, we don't let drug kingpins who have built up a serious crime organisation walk.
Tell that last part to the families of people who have died in the opioid crisis. Drug kingpin is in the eye of the beholder, or prosecution team as we see. For example: Have you watched the CEOs of several major pharmaceutical companies walk with fines? Large fines, paid out of the very profits made from the sales of drugs that killed the customers. Too bad for Ross that he wasn’t smart enough to hire lawyers, and wear a suit, he might be as free as Zuckerberg or the CEO of any of the major Pharma companies making record settlements this year.
Rather than reforming the legal system alone, why not free those harmed by the system we agree is in need of reform? Start by freeing all political prisoners.
Yes, it does. Ross Ulbricht is not a political prisoner, he is a run of the mill criminal prisoner. Sorry if that offends you.
> Too bad for Ross that he wasn’t smart enough
Too bad for Ross that he laughed in the face of the authorities, deliberately built a criminal trafficking organisation and profited from the trade of known illegal substances, while attempting to order hits on people. He's a scumbag.
This equivocation about the pharma industry is utterly laughable, the situation isn't in the slightest bit comparable.
> Start by freeing all political prisoners.
Which would leave Ross Ulbricht still in jail because he's not one of those.
In my view the answer is clearly yes. One kind is a prisoner of conscience. Prisoners of conscience are not claiming innocence, for example, rather usually the status is a commentary on the unjustness of laws or of punishment. He probably would never be considered as such by Amnesty International because of the extremely questionable murder for hire charges. Just a hint of a such a thing can sink an Amnesty endorsement of a prisoner.
There are other kinds of political prisoners. One can be a common criminal and be fairly and correctly considered a political prisoner due to political circumstances. The war on drugs is a political circumstance which results in disproportionate sentences. Consider that nearly all terrorism and espionage charges generally fall into the classic categories of relative or absolute political crimes. Take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_prisoner and note: “A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.”
In his case the majority of his charges are drug or conspiracy charges which are a major political issue for most of the western world at this time and at the time of his incarceration. Furthermore his incredible habit of journaling clearly shows his political views as they extensively detail the war on drugs, and his attempts to allow people to have access to a market for drugs that is safer than the street. American drug laws as seen by most of the rest of the world are insanely harsh in their punishment.
Consider The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe definition c, d, and e from the Wikipedia link. Do you dispute the judge sentenced him harshly to send a message to others? Do you believe his trial wasn’t marred by unbelievable corruption where several involved officers were arrested and jailed for their conduct?
He may very well be a scumbag, my claims aren’t a defense of him personally. Rather please try to read them as a good faith condemnation of the American judicial and American penal system. End the war on drugs, and end the insanely bad conditions for all prisoners. No one should have to suffer what he is suffering in prison, nor a tainted process which led him to prison. No one deserves double life sentences only to be beaten and (almost certainly, if rumors are to be believed) raped in prison for refusing to join a prison gang as a matter of literal personal political beliefs.
But you can tell me he’s not a political prisoner and that he gets what he deserves. That mostly tells me about you, and not about him.
Particularly that last part. Sorry if that offends you.
You can moralise and equivocate all you like, he is not being held for his views or his politics, he is not being held for political activity, but for his clear criminal actions, which include attempts to have people murdered. That's not 'political'.
There is when the state breaks its own principles and rules, that is the point. It is literally unjust, and the states behavior must be beyond reproach.
> Particularly that last part. Sorry if that offends you.
I am not offended, I asked my questions, which you dodged, in good faith.
I agree with you that murder for hire must be treated seriously. Part of why I find this unjust is that he should have been tried on that charge first and foremost. Yet it looks like it was primarily used to harm his character, and it was not formally brought and successfully won by the state. If the guy did, he should not escape trial for an explicit charge, do you disagree?
> You can moralise and equivocate all you like, he is not being held for his views or his politics, he is not being held for political activity, but for his clear criminal actions, which include attempts to have people murdered. That's not 'political'.
Are you asserting that the drug war, isn’t political?
Are you furthermore asserting that assassinations aren’t inherently political in that context?
Political isn’t a get out of jail free card, and I am not equivocating. I firmly believe he still should stand trial for the murder for hire charges, don’t you?
He ran a website. I don't call that a kingpin
He created a market place which was available as a tor hidden service. It was primarily a website and a communications hub, this makes it a kind of meta-criminal enterprise where he enabled other criminals to sell often illegal drugs, though there was apparently much more.
The stated political goal at the time with using a website was to reduce violence at the time of a transaction. By that alone it was clearly more than a website.