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Let's not forget Popcorn Sutton as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA he shared a similar fate. Kindre

Let's not forget Popcorn Sutton as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA he shared a similar fate. Kindred spirits.

ryanmercer 8y ago
I'm not defending the government (since controlled buys are entrapment in my book and should be illegal) with Popcorn but there's a pretty big difference here. Aaron Swartz = a very questionable "breaking and entering" charge and some computer "crimes". Otherwise, publicly, an extremely upstanding member of society. Popcorn Sutton = very very very openly an illegal distiller, and seller, of untested/unreglated alcohol that he self-documented via video and distributed the video as well as a self-published manual. Had multiple arrests and convictions over the years for the alcohol production, drug charges, assault with a deadly weapon. He was then arrested for trying to sell to an undercover officer while illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Popcorn illegally distilled alcohol for at LEAST 35 years.
- Kinnard 8y ago
  So he did things that were illegal but not wrong?
  - malcolmgreaves 8y ago
    Morally wrong to sell untested and unregulated drugs. Alcohol kills. To me, doesn't sound like this guy was at all on the same level of soft law breaking as Mr. Schwartz. Do you believe this distiller's actions to be just and moral? Are you opposed to laws or something?
    - Kinnard 8y ago
      I am an anarchist actually: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist I do not believe it is wrong to sell "drugs" without government intervention
  - ryanmercer 8y ago
    Popcorn? Popcorn sold potentially dangerous alcohol, drugs, almost certainly was guilty of tax evasion spanning multiple decades, was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. Bootleggers aren't 'innocent'. They're extremely territorial up to the point of property destruction and even murder. They evade alcohol taxation, they often don't report the income from their sales (because, well, duh they don't want more attention). In some instances they are often involved in narcotic/meth/marijuana/heroin trafficking, sometimes have gang affiliations, have murdered law enforcement officers, etc. Popcorn was convicted, and served time, for some of those offenses decades before his last arrest and continued to carry on with his illegal activity. If you think selling potentially toxic alcohol, tax evasion, drug dealing and violent assault are absolutely 'wrong'. Those are the things we KNOW he did. His last arrest, in my opinion the alcohol charge should have been dropped as entrapment, but he was a felon in possession of a firearm which is a crime (and a sensible one, given his prior conviction of assault with a deadly weapon) and he should have been fully on the hook for that. It's unfortunate he felt the need to take his life but his case is in no way similar to that of Aaron Swartz. Aaron made a bad decision and did a largely digital crime, Popcorn was overtly a career criminal.
    - Kinnard 8y ago
      Not equating the two. I don't know Popcorns case in detail but if the assault you listed was in self-defense every thing you list is illegal but not wrong. All alcohol is toxic. Exchange and consumption are consensual, that's what matters.
      - roywiggins 8y ago
        > All alcohol is toxic all alcohol is toxic but sometimes your alcohol is actually accidentally methanol and then you die now, not later https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33224514 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33224514
        fulafel 8y ago
        There was also a headline today about a tomato rice-related death toll in India... (https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-india-46573273 https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-india-46573273) As long as you ignest methanol with enough ethanol mixed in, it's not lethal. You would have to separately capture the small amount of stuff coming out before the "heads" to make deadly methanol. Soundslike this could happen only if you make an industrial quantity batch, and are completely reckless about the basics.

Let's not forget Popcorn Sutton as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA he shared a similar fate. Kindred spirits.

ryanmercer 8y ago

I'm not defending the government (since controlled buys are entrapment in my book and should be illegal) with Popcorn but there's a pretty big difference here. Aaron Swartz = a very questionable "breaking and entering" charge and some computer "crimes". Otherwise, publicly, an extremely upstanding member of society. Popcorn Sutton = very very very openly an illegal distiller, and seller, of untested/unreglated alcohol that he self-documented via video and distributed the video as well as a self-published manual. Had multiple arrests and convictions over the years for the alcohol production, drug charges, assault with a deadly weapon. He was then arrested for trying to sell to an undercover officer while illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Popcorn illegally distilled alcohol for at LEAST 35 years.

Kinnard 8y ago
So he did things that were illegal but not wrong?
- malcolmgreaves 8y ago
  Morally wrong to sell untested and unregulated drugs. Alcohol kills. To me, doesn't sound like this guy was at all on the same level of soft law breaking as Mr. Schwartz. Do you believe this distiller's actions to be just and moral? Are you opposed to laws or something?
  - Kinnard 8y ago
    I am an anarchist actually: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist I do not believe it is wrong to sell "drugs" without government intervention
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  Popcorn? Popcorn sold potentially dangerous alcohol, drugs, almost certainly was guilty of tax evasion spanning multiple decades, was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. Bootleggers aren't 'innocent'. They're extremely territorial up to the point of property destruction and even murder. They evade alcohol taxation, they often don't report the income from their sales (because, well, duh they don't want more attention). In some instances they are often involved in narcotic/meth/marijuana/heroin trafficking, sometimes have gang affiliations, have murdered law enforcement officers, etc. Popcorn was convicted, and served time, for some of those offenses decades before his last arrest and continued to carry on with his illegal activity. If you think selling potentially toxic alcohol, tax evasion, drug dealing and violent assault are absolutely 'wrong'. Those are the things we KNOW he did. His last arrest, in my opinion the alcohol charge should have been dropped as entrapment, but he was a felon in possession of a firearm which is a crime (and a sensible one, given his prior conviction of assault with a deadly weapon) and he should have been fully on the hook for that. It's unfortunate he felt the need to take his life but his case is in no way similar to that of Aaron Swartz. Aaron made a bad decision and did a largely digital crime, Popcorn was overtly a career criminal.
  - Kinnard 8y ago
    Not equating the two. I don't know Popcorns case in detail but if the assault you listed was in self-defense every thing you list is illegal but not wrong. All alcohol is toxic. Exchange and consumption are consensual, that's what matters.
    - roywiggins 8y ago
      > All alcohol is toxic all alcohol is toxic but sometimes your alcohol is actually accidentally methanol and then you die now, not later https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33224514 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33224514
      - fulafel 8y ago
        There was also a headline today about a tomato rice-related death toll in India... (https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-india-46573273 https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-india-46573273) As long as you ignest methanol with enough ethanol mixed in, it's not lethal. You would have to separately capture the small amount of stuff coming out before the "heads" to make deadly methanol. Soundslike this could happen only if you make an industrial quantity batch, and are completely reckless about the basics.