Comment by ceol | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ceol | Hacker News Reader

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I'm not sure what this petition is trying to accomplish. Do you think, should the President fire Ms Ortiz, she would be replaced by someone completely different? Her actions are a reflection of the entire justice system; the person who replaces her will continue with the same bullying, "String 'em up in Town Square"-style tactics as she did. Everything will continue as it has been, but now the affluent, Bay-area 20-somethings who were originally so outraged will kick up their feet and go back to not caring about the justice system because they think they effected some sort of change.

I was so surprised with the HN community's response. So many people saw that Aaron had committed suicide and thought, with their ninja-rockstar-hacker intelligence, that we should go on a witch-hunt and burn Ms Ortiz at the stake. Doesn't that seem like the worst possible thing to do in a time when we have very little facts?

That is a curious argument.

The point of this petition, and everything else done to remove Ortiz, Heymann, and Garland is that it is a repeatable process.

Making a spectacular example of Ortiz et. al. is a first step, but it's a fine first step.

Or put it this way, would we have as many lawyers willing to shield torture had John Yoo ended up delivering pizza for a living?

I'm not seeing much to remove Heymann or Garland. There's another petition for Heymann, but that's not getting near as much traction as the Ortiz one, even when I've seen numerous commenters claim he was the one behind the case.

What's going on with these petitions is exactly the tactic politicians use to calm the populace down when they're screaming for something to be done after a scandal or catastrophe. Removing Ortiz would give everyone the vengeance they desire but it wouldn't do a damn thing because the people qualified to replace her are all just like her.

That's a good point regarding the petition, which is why direct action against these people should not be limited to signing the petition.

Indeed, they should be harried out of their professional and private lives as thoroughly and relentlessly as they drove Swartz to suicide. Their lives should be made not worth living.

Ms Ortiz was making Swartz "an example" by throwing the kitchen sink at him so nobody else thinks about "hacking".

The ones among us who signed the petition want to make AG Ortiz "an example" by asking for her head in a platter, so prosecutors think twice before using these tactics.

United States Attorney (USA) Ortiz. Dear god never Attorney General (AG) Ortiz I hope. Not ever.

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