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My Decade as a Fugitive
- ilamont 7y agoHe got a huge break at sentencing. Assuming the cash economy will be greatly reduced in the year 2029, and tech deeply entrenched in nearly everything we do, how will it be possible to live "underground," either out of necessity or a desire to stay anonymous?
- ci5er 7y agoPre-paid debit cards. Also - buy from preppers. It's not like an iPhone with Facebook is a necessity. If you are looking for food, shelter and maybe a library, I don't think it is that hard. Maybe a little hermit-ey, but pretend you are living as a 1919 Wyoming homesteader, and you are still living a pretty decent (from 1750s standards) life!
- ilamont 7y agoI'm thinking that the streets of 2029 will be covered by cameras and scanners with ubiquitous recognition and tracking capabilities, and financial transactions will be much easier for government officials to access and monitor. Can a person like Waymond get by in an urban area like Oakland? I'm not seeing it. Maybe, like you say, living as a 1919 homesteader in the middle of nowhere is possible, but that's not an option for people who need access to employment, family members, etc.
- ci5er 7y agoAh, well, I grew up 60 miles from the closest town, and 10 miles away from the closest neighbor, and the house didn't have a phone until I left for school at 15, so I guess my standards for acceptable-levels-of-existence are not up to the modern urban standards. I mean, all we did was grow our own food, and sell some of the excess to pay for land taxes and energy/fuel. And, no, I am not a boomer.
- jlokier 7y agoIn 2029, with cash no longer accepted by major vendors including government, and with ubiqutous tracking of individual's physical movements and financial transactions, so most people won't want the repurcussions of dealing with you even if they could, how are you going to be able to sell any of your food and use it to pay for land taxes?
- dan-robertson 7y agoI’m thinking the streets of 2029 will be quite a lot like the streets of 2019. I don’t expect a massive change in surveillance or technology. I wouldn’t be surprised to see fewer cars (especially outside America). I expect the social problems would be different but I can’t guess how they would be different.
- DougN7 7y agoI think we’d be surprised what is already here. You can’t drive a stolen car through a medium town in Kansas (Lenexa) without the police chasing you down before you get out of town. Kansas!
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoYou can drive a car with an illegitimate foreign license plate down I95 through some of the most authoritarian parts of the northeast without being bothered. There's a lot more luck involved than the people selling the dragnets would have you believe. That said, I still am not a fan of all this surveillance.
- JabavuAdams 7y agoSo, ah, you can't just leave us hanging...
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoQuebec doesn't put registration year stickers on their plates so there's no way to tell without running the plate whether it's valid. If you just need to get a shitbox that moves under its own power from A to B it's a pretty cheap way to do it.
- LeifCarrotson 7y agoDo you think the streets of 2019 are similar to the streets of 2009?
- cantrevealname 7y ago> Pre-paid debit cards One major problem is that all your transactions with that debit card are now linked together. If you buy a cell phone with that card, all your calls, texts, and Internet activity get linked. If you buy a cab ride or bus ticket or subway pass, your travel is now linked. It would be extremely inconvenient and expensive to buy separate debit cards for every transaction. (Expensive because (a) there might be a card purchase fee and (b) you'll end up leaving residual amounts on each card after a single purchase per card.) Furthermore, how would you pay for the pre-paid debit card? With cash of course. But as cash is becoming rarer, it's likely that the only way to buy a pre-paid card will be with a transaction from another card or account, linking it to other digital accounts. So you'll have a small degree of privacy with a pre-paid card, but nothing close to true anonymity. There seems no way out of the surveillance universe as cash is marginalized.
- ci5er 7y agoI find your predictions of the death of non-digital fungible currency to be unlikely, but, who knows! We'll see, I guess.
- jlokier 7y agoIt's started in a few places. Whether it will end up widespread remains to be seen. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18422422 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18422422 "I'm a Norwegian who went to a Swedish music festival last summer. I couldn't pay for a lot of things there, since the booths only accepted Swish (the only relevant Swedish mobile payment solution, it's a de facto monopoly). I couldn't sign up and use Swish on my phone, since it only accepts Swedish bank accounts. I couldn't borrow money from my Swedish friends either, since they didn't have cash (and it mostly wasn't accepted at the festival anyway). When I could get someone to pay for me directly, transferring the money back to them was hard (since the festival didn't have any ATMs), so I had to go through the whole burdensome SWIFT procedure with getting their bank account number, their full name and address, their bank info, IBAN number of their bank etc, so I could send the money back when I got home to Norway. Utopia my ass."
- jerry1979 7y agoI would imagine crypto could fill this void.
- ColanR 7y agoCrypto is easily traceable.
- helpPeople 7y agoSome are. The ones that aren't, I'm starting to feel bullish on.
- ColanR 7y agoFor myself, I think there's enough information available that something like the FBI could still trace even monero.
- nickthemagicman 7y agoI'm wondering how they can trace it if you buy it from an ATM with a mask on, or via a VPN on a battery powered raspberry pi you put in the ceiling of a coffeeshop, then you tumble it constantly. Even if they break the Monero encryption, and the tumbling, it's a dead end at the point of purchase.
- rosybox 7y agoI'm glad he got a break, for his sake and his family's, but if he had turned himself in in 2005 he would probably still be in prison. I like that this sentence encourages people to turn themselves in though, but I feel like it also rewarded him for running from the law. I think our sentencing is too harsh even for violent criminals. Even once violent people can change their life around.
- sysbin 7y agoI cannot make a choice that's truly my own when confined in a system and without my choice being effected by the system. More simply put everything is predetermined. So I think our sentencing is fundamentally too harsh when we're punishing humans that didn't have control over their birth into a life that will have whatever outcome that cannot change. I think the justice system should keep that in mind when designing the process it functions under. Although I think people prefer ignorance instead of reality.
- RaceWon 7y ago> sentencing is fundamentally too harsh when we're punishing humans that didn't have control over their birth into a life that will have whatever outcome You need to spend a few nights in lock up. I did once in NYC during a holiday weekend. I wasn't scared because I can defend myself --really well... ridiculously well actually. But I asked one fellow what he was in for (Never Ever Do That btw), and he said casually "I offded some nigger". Maybe it was self defense like he said, IDK. But people who live on the fringes Are different then those who don't, and if they feel violence or the threat of violence is a solution to the problem, then that's the path they take. Typically I don't get fucked with--something in my gaze cuts off that shit 99.99% of the time, but not always, and I count myself as lucky the few times serious shit went down in my life, I didn't lose. Sounds like you carry a gun or are also strong, can read patterns at a glance and are really good with your hands. Most people aren't like us though.
- IIAOPSW 7y agoI spent a night in central booking for arson (charges were latter dropped). I got the impression at any given time the people in there are 60% DUI, 30% domestic abuse, 10% everything else. I didn't see anyone being "fucked with". That part must come after indictment if you aren't simply released and given a court date. How big of a difference is it between central and rikers?
- asdf21 7y ago... Wouldn't the statute of limitations pass after 10 years?
- austinl 7y agoIt doesn't exactly work like that — you can't just go into hiding to wait out the time. Since there was a warrant out for his arrest, and marshals were actively looking for him, I'm assuming the limit was suspended. See: https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/criminal/criminal-law-basics/california-criminal-statutes-of-limitations.html https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/criminal/criminal-law-bas...
- onetimemanytime 7y agoin some countries you can though, even if sentenced, so it's not a dumb question. The idea is that after, say, 15 years (jail or not,) you've been rehabbed, making jail moot.
- PeterisP 7y agoThey can't suddenly decide to press charges against someone after the statute of limitations, but once they have done so, that doesn't apply.
- n8henry 7y agoDoubtful for an armed robbery
- asdf21 7y agohttps://resources.lawinfo.com/criminal-defense/criminal-statute-limitations-time-limits.html#california https://resources.lawinfo.com/criminal-defense/criminal-stat... California says six years even for murder..
- bdcravens 7y agoFrom that page: "In some cases, tolling of the statute of limitations may take place. This means that the statute of limitations is temporarily suspended, similar to pausing a timer. This generally occurs when a person who has committed a crime attempts to go into hiding."
- newsbinator 7y ago> After four years together, Kim and I had a daughter To me this was probably the most reckless part of the story. Why would a person facing the rest of his life in prison bring a child into the world, knowing he'd likely abandon her as painfully as his dad abandoned him?
- cthaeh 7y agoBecause that person is a person. We all have Hope's and dreams, and more importantly we are all selfish.
- PhantomGremlin 7y agoWhy would a person ... bring a child into the world Do you believe that people are descended from ancestors in the Garden of Eden? If not, the most rational explanation is that we are descended from ancient organisms on primordial Earth. Perhaps not even Earth (i.e. panspermia). How many billions of generations of asexual reproduction as single celled organisms? How many millions of generations of multi celled animals? How many thousands of generations of Homo Sapiens? Each and every one of your ancestors reproduced. They survived long enough to reproduce. Probability 1. Not probability 0.9999999999. Probability 1. That is such an astonishing thing that it is literally inconceivable (not capable of being imagined or grasped mentally; unbelievable) by me, at least not fully. And yet, here we are. All of us. We've all won the lottery of life. We, each and every one of us, are here because each and every one of our ancestors brought a child into the world. That's why he had a child. Because each and every one of his ancestors had a child. And many of those children survived in a far far more difficult environment than what we find ourselves in today. That biological imperative outweighs everything else. This isn't usually conscious. This doesn't have to be rational. It's hardwired deeply into our DNA. Because we wouldn't be here unless it was.
- 77pt77 7y ago> and every one of your ancestors reproduced. They survived long enough to reproduce. Probability 1. Not probability 0.9999999999. Probability 1. This is not how it works.
- WalterBright 7y ago> I faced 44 years to life, but when it came time to sentence me, the judge cited my family, my steady work, my character references, and most importantly, ten years being crime-free. I'd give him a big break on sentencing for those reasons, too.
- Mirioron 7y agoIt makes sense too. Prison is there to rehabilitate people and this guy had essentially already been rehabilitated.
- cc81 7y agoIt is for both but rehabilitation and punishment. But in this case I do agree but let us say he had panicked shot and killed someone during that robbery. Even though he would have lived his life the same most people would probably feel uneasy about a completely suspended prison sentence even if the man and his actions afterwards might have been exactly the same and that he would be no smaller risk to society after going to prison, possibly the opposite. But we (or I at least) would not feel it was not fair unless he was punished by prison.
- Gunax 7y agoI am going to say something I know will be controversial: none of those should matter. For one, his ability to evade justice for 10 years should not allow him to get off easier. Nor should things like having a family. Why should I go to prison for longer just because I decided not to have kids? As for working: that's what you're supposed to do. You don't get extra credit for that. Everyone is willing to discuss racial disparities in sentencing. But what about family structure disparities? What about people who want to go live in the woods Unabomber style? Sentencing should not be a popularity contest. When someone is pointing a gun at you, you probably would not care either.
- erikpukinskis 7y agoNot just having kids, but taking care of them. Because it demonstrates you are taking care of more than yourself. If you were the caretaker for an elderly parent, or you foster animals, or you mentored other at risk kids, I think it would also cast you in a similar light.
- JackFr 7y agoTo be clear, he was guilty of every crime with which he was charged. Home invasion. Armed robbery. Leading cops in a high speed chase. The words ‘sorry’, ‘regret’, ‘remorse’ or ‘responsibility’ appear no where in this piece. This man is practically drowning in his own self-regard and self-pity. He and he alone is the author of his misfortune.
- JabavuAdams 7y agoHe didn't kill or injure anyone, and then he turned his life around -- on his own. The daily actions of living a better life outweigh mere words in a story. He robbed a bunch of drug dealers. Should he go apologize to them? It's quite likely that they have turned out worse than him.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoUnless you want judges or juries to start deciding which victim deserves a crime inflicted upon them, I don’t see why it matters who he robbed. He was also given a great opportunity in life, and threw it away by choosing to get drunk and getting into fights, enough times that he had a police record. Society can’t afford to let everyone go through a “get drunk and fight people, commit armed robbery, go on the run, come to senses” moment. Also, I wouldn’t be spending my time associating with my dad if I knew he had been beating my mom and she had to run and hide from him with her children.
- JabavuAdams 7y agoYou seem to be coming from a punitive mind-set, yet also arguing about what is best for society. It is better for society (AFAICT from this one piece) that this guy got the outcome he got. It has a better chance of breaking the generational cycle of poverty and criminality. Regarding associating with his Dad -- there are many reasonable reactions. Kids need fathers. When trying to understand other people's behaviour, as frustrating as it might be, it's generally a mistake to think "well, I wouldn't do that." It's often more productive to ask "why would someone do that?". EDIT> Regarding the nature of the robbery victims ... from a punitive stance hey they were drug-dealers. Outlaws shouldn't expected to be protected by the law. From a societal harm-reduction stance ... well, they got scared and robbed, not physically injured or killed. That should factor into the reaction. Depriving the subject's child of a father who seems to have reformed is probably worse than incarcerating him because even unharmed drug dealers need the protection of the law. Mindless application of the law is not a good thing.
- DoreenMichele 7y agoGood read. But stories like this always make me wonder how society is ever going to find a path forward. The young idealist who saw a black man as a victim of the system ended up fleeing from him and living in hiding to protect herself and their child. But on the opposite end, some comments here feel this guy deserves no break at all. How do we make a better world when it clearly doesn't work to say "You were just a victim and you deserve better!" but it also doesn't work to err on the side of "The beatings shall continue until morale improves." I'm kind of glad to see he found some sort of path out, against very long odds. We seem to do such a poor job of that at the societal level.
- dgb23 7y ago> But stories like this always make me wonder how society is ever going to find a path forward. Maybe the mere fact that you are thinking this way is a good sign. In a sense we are the products of our time, in relation to our environment. It seems to me that people appreciate both the empathic and rational more and more.
- kstenerud 7y agoThere are countries in Europe that have already made this better world. It is possible.
- DoreenMichele 7y agoEurope basically shipped its rejects to the US (and Australia), then likes to claim moral superiority and better ability to play "let's all just get along."
- concordDance 7y agoI guess the lesson here is to not have children with someone bouncing in and out of prison.
- JabavuAdams 7y agoPeople never seem to learn that lesson, though. Also in some communities every attainable father is bouncing in and out of prison.
- orthoxerox 7y agoThese communities should have free access to sperm banks.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- crb002 7y agoThe guy has steady work yet the court rips him away from his family? What’s the point?