HN Explorer

Petition to remove DA Ortiz reaches 25,000 signatures

104 points by olefoo ↗ HN
The petition to the President to remove Carmen Ortiz from the position of District Attorney for the state of Massachusetts has reached the number of signatures that is supposed to deserve a response from the Whitehouse.

This does not mean the campaign is over; but it does mean we are off to a good start. The next step is for you. Yes, you. To write or call your US Representative, and both of your Senators, ask them to help bring proportionality, reason and mercy back to our justice system; ask them to further the cause of open knowledge, and ask them to hold the president to account for the actions of Ms. Ortiz and Mr. Heymann.

Thank you for your help.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck

32 comments

[ 6.1 ms ] story [ 56.3 ms ] thread
dear
Nice!
olefoo
Yes. Less than 72 hours since I pressed submit on my half-edited, strike-while-the-iron-is-hot petition.

It feels rather hollow, I wish we hadn't lost Aaron.

egwor
At the risk of being down-voted, are we risking the same threat that one of these prosecutors would also take their life? Put yourself in the position of someone who voted. How would you feel if they took their lives, as a consequence of this poll/vote? They are people too.

I worry that the hamsters running the cogs are being blamed rather than the system.

dear
The 'hamsters' run the system.
olefoo
Being a federal prosecutor isn't just a job, it's a privileged position of power. It's not someplace where you bumble through law school and wind up arguing to put people away for life; all of these people competed to get where they are now. These are people who went to elite law schools and worked hard at being the sort of people that rise up the ranks in a federal D.A.'s office. And one of the things that goes with the unbridled power to decide who to indict and what charges will be brought; is the responsiblity to use that power appropriately. Anyone who does not understand that responsibility should not be allowed to pass the bar, much less be handed the power to ruin lives with relative impunity.
BrokenPipe
Agreed. You can't compare losing a job versus losing all your money and your family and friends money as well as ending up 35 years behind bars in a federal prison, coming out around 60 years old with nothing left.

I don't think we are arguing the persecutor should go to prison for 35 years. I'm in favor of having the persecutor OUT of office with prejudice (i.e. never back into office) and perhaps relooking into everyone he had convicted.

madaxe
They're people, but they're people without morals or scruples, who would happily sell another person's existence for their own financial gain.

A bit like slave traders, really.

ArchD
We're not talking about putting them in jail. You can't compare them to Aaron Swartz.
hobbyhacker
It's hamsters all the way down. Not blaming any hamsters for wrongdoing is implicitly agreeing with the system.
spin
"...that one of these prosecutors would also take their life?"

An eye for an eye. Being passive doesn't seem to bring any justice.

If you invade Iraq based on flimsy (at best) evidence, there are no consequences. If you sit in an office in Washington DC and order the torture of prisoners (which is still illegal in the US) there are no consequences. If you wreck the economy, there are no consequences. (This just in: HSBC gets a free pass for money-laundering.)

But if you're a low-level geek (Bradley Manning, John Kiriakou, Aaron Swartz) then you will be crushed under the full weight of the law.

Important People don't go to prison. Low-level geeks with a conscience go to prison. Or have their lives completely ruined.

They have no empathy or respect for us? I have no empathy or respect for them. Harass her until she commits suicide. Washington is full of sick-and-twisted freaks. We should stand as a perfect mirror to their moral crimes.

phaus
Bradley Manning stole over 700,000 classified documents and handed them over to a hostile foreign national. Not because he wanted to make the world a better place, but because he didn't like being in the Army. That is not responsible disclosure by any stretch of the imagination.

Even if government employees were protected for blowing the whistle, what about the 690-something thousand documents that had absolutely nothing to do with anything sinister? Why didn't he even make the slightest attempt to bring light to the issue through official channels? You can't go to court and say that the system would have failed you if you didn't even give it a chance.

I'm not saying he deserves life in prison or anything, but make no mistake, he's a traitor, not a patriot.

spin
But when HSBC helps Iranians launder money, that gets a free pass?

You said "I'm not saying he deserves life in prison or anything..." that's exactly my point. Important People get a free pass. Low-level geeks get crushed under the full weight of the law.

phaus
I get your point, I just can't stand seeing people mention him in the same breath as people who don't belong in prison at all. When uninformed people see them all lumped together like that, they are likely to start assuming things about the other guys.

You are correct though, if you aren't important, you are pretty much screwed.

achille2
Can we continue on to the man actually pulling the strings on this case: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/fire-assistant-us-...
olefoo
Yes. I signed that one and would encourage everyone else to do so as well.

However, it is an unfortunate fact of political life, that when someone screws up; the best move is to try to get their boss fired. Shit, as they say; flows downhill. Wouldn't surprise me too much if she fires him or he resigns under pressure, regardless of whether her position is seriously threatened or not.

exit
every cynic who argues targeting a specific prosecutor won't fix the system is going to eat humble pie when this movement brings about sweaping reform of the justice system
olefoo
I sure hope you are right. But our .gov is a supertanker with a turn radius of several years. Change comes slowly.
madaxe
It won't change anything. Ortiz will probably get promoted over this. Corruption and incompetency are rewarded in America.

No, really, I'm not kidding, so I'm not sure why you downvoted me. She's the favourite for governor of Ma.

If you run a bank into the ground, you get a smile and a handshake, and a big fat cheque.

If you start a war based on lies, you get given a cushy retirement and immunity from prosecution.

Your American dream is dead in a ditch. You just have an American nightmare, and you desperately need to wake up.

So it goes.

BrokenPipe
Hey, I don't think you are wrong. It is totally corrupted. On the other hand, things eventually do change (for better or worse) and we should fight or at the very least support those that do fight back. All I'm saying is that it is worth trying, even if we have quite a bit to lose from the system we don't like so much.
madaxe
Oh, I agree, but I'm just incredibly bitter and cynical, and I don't believe the institutions which run the show are capable of change from within.

I hope to high hell that I'm wrong.

BrokenPipe
Not only that, but how about trying either way, both within and from the outside. The bitter and the cynical can help from the outside too ;)
TWAndrews
She may have been, but driving an sdmirable young man to suicide doesn't play well with voters.
madaxe
Except it does. We're in our internet/hacker community filter bubble.

If you look at how it's being reported by the Fox, Yahoo, and the rest, they're talking about how he "downloaded files" and "infringed copyright". There's a wilful failure to mention what the files were. As a result, the majority of the comments on those sites, which are indicative of a large proportion of the voting population, are saying words to the effect of "good riddance".

:(

jerrya
I'd like to see way more signatures than 25,000.

President Obama can ignore 25,000 nerds. But 50,000 will be a petition unlike many others. 200,000 people have signed a petition on gun control.

I'd like to see 50,000 signatures on this petition -- I'd love to see 100,000 signatures.

madaxe
Shame that this will be ignored, utterly, by the administration.

Sadly you're all mistaken if you think the status quo will change through anything other than an overthrow of your entire, rotten-to-the-core system of governance.

dholowiski
I'm sure this is a massive coincidence, but they just raised the requirement from 25,000 to 100,000. Get signing!