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Comment by Benferhat | Hacker News Reader

The prosecutor's job is to charge you with the violation of every statute that the evidence indicates you violated, and use that breadth of charges as leverage in a plea negotiation. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

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People in power need to take responsibility for what they do. Claiming they're "just doing their job" is how the worst stuff that ever happens to humanity by other humans goes down.

For more, check out The Lucifer Effect. Doing evil in the name of your "job" is a bug in the human psyche.

We need to do everything we can to mitigate its effects, and that starts by not staying stupid shit like "Hate the game, not the player" that's intended to absolve people of the guilt and shame they should be feeling for acting immorally.

Laws are meant to be beneficial to society as a whole. In the US, laws must be passed by a democratically elected body.

The judicial system is one of the few areas where "just doing your job", no matter how 'evil' it may seem, is morally right. Even the most heinous and obviously guilty defendant deserves the best defence available. And similarly, is a prosecutor enforcing a law that society chose to enact inherently evil?

It is far, far better to take all this outrage and anger and direct it towards changing the outdated laws that govern computer crime.

> And similarly, is a prosecutor enforcing a law that society chose to enact inherently evil?

That's not what happened here: society did not enact laws that made his actions illegal, and certainly did not inact punishments to the extent of a felony and 35 years in prison.

This is perhaps the clearest case I've even seen for prosecutorial abuse (excepting situation where the prosecutions literally fabricates evidence). More info here: http://unhandled.com/2013/01/12/the-truth-about-aaron-swartz...

Bottom line: in this case, society is not to blame and no, the prosecutors weren't just "doing their job".

Congress is bought and elections are a choice among the bought.

We are dealing with prideful arrogant people. They need a vivid example in order to get their attention. Destroying this case's prosecutors' careers is only a good start.

"don't hate the player" is a satirical half assed defense used to justify irresonsible actions. even if the entirety of our hate should be directed at the game, that doesn't mean the player holds no responsibility.

Hate the game or play the game.

Destroying her reputation. Stripping her of every professional friendship by making her a pariah. Piling on in every conceivable forum against her. Making it cost her every every she ever earned, her home, her retirement, and every penny of any family member willing to help her would be perfectly fitting and proportionate in that light.

And yet you will see people here say "Write a note to your Congressman" and that should be the limit of it. Bah.

Isn't part of the game political? By shaming her, you are playing the game.

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