They can fuck up your life one little piece at a time. Imagine having to work a job to earn an income (your assets probably being seized) and function in society with a constant feeling of danger looming ahead. You have certain legal protections, and your basic needs are taken care of. When you are in prison, you can focus all your energy on your case, and the situation can only get better than your current one, not worse. Maybe being indicted while free may even be a bigger psychological pressure on somebody than being in prison. Governments often try to break activists who threaten their agenda (or in this case, that of a dying industry), and it seems they have succeeded with him, which I find very sad and which makes me so angry.
It is called activism, and is a very brave and noble thing to do, something most people don't have the guts for. Likely it won't weigh on their consciousness at all.Īaron Swartz did something he knew was morally right but very probably illegal in some way, and, him being a prodigy, I'm very confident he was aware of this. I hope those that had a hand in Aarons' continued prosecution will sleep miserably for a long time to come. The letter of the law and the spirit of the law should both be taken into account. The prospect of significant amounts of jail time (35 years for downloading scientific papers, it shouldn't even be a crime) and/or a felony record must have weighed very heavy on him.įor a person that is of a very stable mental make-up that would already be extreme pressure.įor someone with a mental issue it may very well be all it takes.Īaron was inspiring to me, I think that no copyrighted piece of paper is worth a human life and that the DOJ, even if they are not directly responsible at least indirectly carry some of the responsibility here for beating down someone who was fighting for an extremely good cause in a somewhat haphazard way. When you're placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don't hang yourself, that's how heavy being imprisoned can weigh on some.Īaron did something that he thought was right, that he truly believed in and that upset a large number of applecarts and that had far reaching implications, had the proverbial book thrown at him and then some. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn't have anything to do with Aaron killing himself.įor some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn't commit is enough to push them over the edge. If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap.
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