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Comment by marcus_holmes | Hacker News Reader

I love HN, it's one of the few places you can get reasoned conversation online.

But this is one of those subjects where it gets weird.

SBF was directly responsible for millions, if not billions, of direct monetary loss to identified individuals. Yet the top comments on HN are all discussing whether incarceration is retribution, spite, deterrence, or rehabilition.

The USA incarcerates people for tiny financial damages at a higher rate than anywhere else in the world. $20 of theft? 5 years away, no problem. $1 billion: well we should consider what we're trying to achieve here...

If the USA is going to be consistent in sentencing then just fucking kill him.

Or reconsider and free the thousands of black dudes serving ridiculous sentences for minor crimes.

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I've noticed the same trend. HN (as a collective) doesn't believe in punishing white-collar crimes with incarceration. I guess it hits too close to home.

Realistically, I mainly believe in punishing violent crimes with incarceration. Most white collar criminals could be sufficiently contained with house arrest and restrictions on visits/internet access/etc. Just realistically, you can keep a financier in an apartment they pay for, but probably not a good idea for someone who's murdered and burglared.

Yeah, it clearly does. Lot of sweating collars.

> $20 of theft? 5 years away

Who in this day and age is going to jail for half a decade because they snuck a 20 dollar bill out of the cash register when no one was looking?

There are almost always violent actions involved that are conveniently glossed over whenever someone bemoans “life in prison for stealing a loaf of bread!”

Nobody. Federal prisoners are almost entirely convicted of serious violent crime.

Which is why you saw this with relatively local and state level prosecutions from 90s tough on crime policies like three strikes laws.

It’s almost night and day compared to when Bob Lee was murdered and they thought vagrant or some other (insert stereotype here) was the culprit. Remember how tough on crime this crowd was then ? Remember the silence and lack of thought pieces when it turned out to be someone he knew instead of some brown person or drug addict ?

It’s simple - everyone here arguing the merits of a lower sentence identifies with Sam.

Only one person was sentenced in us for 2008 crisis. So, consistent, as in big financial crimes are not punished, because criminals are very close to the people on top.

Violent crime is ultimately more than just monetary damages.

Like realistically, sbf can just be kept in a fenced compound. He's shown no great violent urge. House arrest would probably serve the same purpose of removing him from the population for X years.

Someone breaking into a building is a lot different. They need more security and cause more chaos.

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